Dolly Parton was born in the impoverished Appalachian region of Tennessee in 1946, growing up with 12 siblings. She refers to herself back then as so poor the ants wouldn't even steal from them.

Her childhood home is featured here and on the album cover of her 1973 My Tennessee Mountain Home.

Her rise to fame is undeniably impressive, landing her in many halls of fame, associated with hundreds of songs, receiving over 200 awards, and donating a vast majority of her wealth to support her community.

Dolly Parton has consistently tested to be one of the most beloved celebrities, topping the charts in global records for most well liked as well as least criticized celebrities, according to Q scores

She has maintained a loyal fanbase across the political spectrum, with the left appreciating her apparent support for LGBTQ+ movements and Black Lives Matter. The right views her as a working class icon and country pride. She has managed to keep die hard fans of fundementalist christians and drag queens alike by refusing to criticize anyone or discuss politics.

She is an icon for third-wave feminism, famously having styled herself after "the town tramp", and choosing to create a look of exaggerated femininity at a time when women were pushing to masculinize themselves to be taken seriously in the workplace. She is the first to laugh at her own appearance, making it difficult for anyone to criticize her. When she found out that the cloned sheep "Dolly" was named for her because it was cloned from a mammary gland cell, she invited the sheep to Dollywood.

True to her neutral style, she will not call herself a feminist. She has been quoted to say that she is both for all women, and she loves men.

We will attempt to tell her story through data.

Billboard's Country Music Stars

The top 30 country music singers to make the Billboard Hot 100 list. Bubble size is represents a total score awarded to the artist's billboard presence, depending on number of songs, length of time on billboard, and highest ranking achieved.

Ranging from classic country legend Johnny Cash to pop country hit Luke Bryan, country music casts a wide net. Still, it's sound is unique to the United States. Many country artists, including Taylor Swift, have cited Dolly Parton as a major influence. We demonstrate her influence here by showing her collaborations - Dolly has collaborated with almost half of the country artists to make the Hot 100 List.
She did not collaborate with Elvis, but he originally tried to buy the rights to "I Will Always Love You"

Dolly's influence is not contained to country music. Over her career, she collaborated with an impressive 434 artists. We show her collaborations over six decades.

Beyond the BillBoards

Dolly's songs have had an enormous success even outside the country genre.

20 of her songs have made it to the Billboard Hot 100 ranking.

9 to 5 was her most popular song, hitting number 1 for two weeks in a row in the 80's.

Billboard Hot 100: A Brief Musical History

Explore other decades!

Dolly has produced music since the 1960's, resulting in nearly a thousand songs. Spotify was founded in 2006, providing a platform to share her artistry and gain global recognition. Below are some of her statistics.

Total Streams

Features

Tracks

One Million Streams

Dolly is cited as the most honored female country singer-songwriter of all time. She has even rejected the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Twice.

Dolly at her 50th Grammy nomination

Music, Acting, Composition, Achievements, and Service

Won

Nominated

Of the 413 awards she has been at least nominated for, she holds Guinness World Records, million-plus streaming awards, countless Country Music Awards, and teaching recognition.

She has been nominated for a Grammy 55 times to date.

She has received awards notably from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Daughters of the American Revolution, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution, United States Library of Congress and the United States Congress.

She has been induced into the Grammy Hall of Fame multiple times, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

In 1985 Drinkin'stein won the Worst Original Song Award.

In 1985 Sweet Lovin' Friends and Rhinestone were nominated for Worst Original Song and Worst Musical Score.

Her long-time musical partner Porter Wagoner has been at least nominated with her as a duo 34 times.

The popularity of "Jolene" as a baby name spiked with the release of this recording.

1 Million Streams: Yellow Roses

1 Million Streams: The Seeker

1 Million Streams: Coat of Many Colors

2 Million Streams: Two Doors Down

3 Million Streams: Jolene

10 Million Streams: I Will Always Love You

She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Newman College and an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Letters from the University of Tennessee

The Library of Congress has given her the title of Living Legend

Coat of Many Colors (1971 recording) has been inducted into the National Recording Registry

She is recognized by multiple teaching organizations for her commitment to providing access to education

Her hit song 9 to 5 was made for the 1980 film 9 to 5, where she played Doralee Rhodes.

She was nominated for 2 Golden Globes in 1981 and 1 Golden Globe in 1984 for Best Motion Picture Actress and New Star of the Year.

She is an EGOT nominee, having been at least nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

While Dolly was careful never to make political waves, she has made extreme efforts to effect change that matters to her through charitable efforts. She is quiet about most of her charitable endeavors, so the full extent will probably never be known. She is most famous for the Imagination Library, a one million dollar donation that helped fund the moderna vaccine, and repeated efforts to help her home state of Tennessee. Just last month, Jeff Bezos awarded her $100 million for charitable efforts.

Dolly's father was illiterate, as he was unable to attend school regularly as a child. He was deeply ashamed of this. She started the Imagination Library with him, and in honor of him. The Imagination Library sends monthly free books to young children in hopes of fostering a love of reading and a love of learning. Currently, 1 in 10 children in the United States are enrolled in the Imagination Library program, and the program has gifted over 195 million books to date.

We estimate the total cost of the program to be over $320 million.

During the pandemic, she also hosted a virtual reading hour

The Parton family in the 40s or 50s

Dolly grew up in extreme poverty, and never forgot her roots. Nearly all of her known charitable ventures appear to be deeply personal, and centered around her hometown of Sevier, Tennesee. She has paid particular attention to education and healthcare.

Dolly's biggest influence is probably the purchase and continued expansion of Dollywood, a themepark in Sevier. An assessment by the Tennessee Department of Transportation estimates the economic impact of Dollywood to be ~1.8 billion per year. Dollywood currently employs ~11,000 people. The impacts of a successful tourist attraction in an impoverished region cannot be overstated.

My Tennessee Mountain Home

We were curious to see if any impact from Dolly's attempts to help her hometown could be observed. Here we show poverty rates collected from census data, and the location and relative size of her donation. Bubble size represents donation size*

There are certainly many factors that may drive poverty rates, but census data appears to suggest that Sevier County performed better over the decades than surrounding counties, possibly due to the Dolly's repeated attempts to help the region, especially with the support of Dollywood.

*Except for one Dollywood bubble,which represented as impact assessed. The amount of money she has put into Dollywood over the years is not known

Dolly receiving the vaccine she helped fund

Dolly at the early days of Dollywood

Dolly hosting a story hour to celebrate the donation of the 100 millionth book

Beholden to no one but herself and her love for her art, Dolly Parton managed evolve into someone often described as a "National Treasure" thanks to her musical talent, her business ingenuity, her careful maneuvering to stay away from controversy, her tendency to be genuinely kind to everyone, and her extreme generosity.

After careful review of the data, we agree with the assessment.

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, October 23). List of awards and nominations received by Dolly Parton. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, November 13). List of songs recorded by Dolly Parton. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Dhruvil Dave. (2021). Billboard "The Hot 100" Songs[Data set]. Kaggle.
Adnan Anam. (2022). Spotify Artist Stats[Data set]. Kaggle.
Dollywood Foundation Form 990 filings (2001-2020). IRS, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer
IPUMS NHGIS, University of Minnesota, www.nhgis.org
U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Poverty status in the past 12 months, 2020 American Community Survey 5-year estimates data profiles. The Census Bureau. https://data.census.gov/table?t=Official+Poverty+Measure&g=0400000US47$0500000&tid=ACSST5Y2020.S1701
U.S. Census Bureau (2015). Historical County Level Poverty Estimates Tool. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/time-series/demo/census-poverty-tool.html
Donations and other Biographical Info: Many open source sources

DOLLY PARTON

Billboard's Country Music Stars

The top 30 country music singers to make the Billboard Hot 100 list. Bubble size is represents a total score awarded to the artist's billboard presence, depending on number of songs, length of time on billboard, and highest ranking achieved.

Beyond the BillBoards

Billboard Hot 100: A Brief Musical History

Explore other decades!

Total Streams

Features

Tracks

One Million Streams

Music, Acting, Composition, Achievements, and Service

Won

Nominated

Of the 413 awards she has been at least nominated for, she holds Guinness World Records, million-plus streaming awards, countless Country Music Awards, and teaching recognition.

She has been nominated for a Grammy 55 times to date.

She has been induced into the Grammy Hall of Fame multiple times, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

In 1985 Drinkin'stein won the Worst Original Song Award.

In 1985 Sweet Lovin' Friends and Rhinestone were nominated for Worst Original Song and Worst Musical Score.

Her long-time musical partner Porter Wagoner has been at least nominated with her as a duo 34 times.

The popularity of "Jolene" as a baby name spiked with the release of this recording.

1 Million Streams: Yellow Roses

1 Million Streams: The Seeker

1 Million Streams: Coat of Many Colors

2 Million Streams: Two Doors Down

3 Million Streams: Jolene

10 Million Streams: I Will Always Love You

She holds an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Newman College and an Honorary Doctorate of Musical Letters from the University of Tennessee

The Library of Congress has given her the title of Living Legend

Coat of Many Colors (1971 recording) has been inducted into the National Recording Registry

She is recognized by multiple teaching organizations for her commitment to providing access to education

Her hit song 9 to 5 was made for the 1980 film 9 to 5, where she played Doralee Rhodes.

She was nominated for 2 Golden Globes in 1981 and 1 Golden Globe in 1984 for Best Motion Picture Actress and New Star of the Year.

She is an EGOT nominee, having been at least nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony.

Imagination Library

My Tennessee Mountain Home

After careful review of the data, we agree with the assessment.

Sources

Project Team

Isidora Diaz

Harvard University

Data Science MS Candidate

Hope Neveux

Harvard University

Data Science MS Candidate

Loralee Ryan

Harvard University

Data Science MS Candidate