I got the chance to speak to Dolly Parton, and she was full of great life lessons. These are my favorites.

As news of Parton's death reverberated astir the world, 1 clip that quickly began circulating connected societal media was her 1978 question and reply pinch Barbara Walters.

During their sit-down, the journalist told Parton, "You don't person to look for illustration this. You're very beautiful. You don't person to deterioration the blonde wigs, the utmost clothes, right?"

"It's surely a choice," Parton replied. "I would ne'er stoop truthful debased arsenic to beryllium fashionable; that's the easiest point successful the world to do."

That question and reply was astir 50 years ago, and yet it feels much applicable than ever successful a clip erstwhile it seems the algorithm is making america each look, dress, and talk the same. Parton didn't attraction astir trends. She loved sparkles, truthful she wore them. She loved large hair, truthful she teased it. And she loved her constitution truthful much, she wore it to bed.

Parton told maine she wasn't 1 to bargain trendy aliases costly products. She conscionable utilized what worked champion for her.

"I don't deliberation you person to salary a ton of money to person bully products," she said. "Most of the products that costs little are conscionable arsenic good, and sometimes better, arsenic the ones that costs a fortune. I don't bargain for fame; I conscionable bargain the ones that activity for me."

One of my favourite nosy facts to stock pinch group is that Parton wrote "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" connected the aforesaid night. Can you imagine? Most of america tin hardly make meal aft work, and present Parton is, writing 2 of the astir important songs successful America's discography wrong hours of each other!

There was nary large concealed to her productivity, nary fancy optimization hacks. Parton realized erstwhile she sewage her champion activity done and stuck to it — moreover if that meant waking up astatine 3 a.m.

"I don't require arsenic overmuch slumber arsenic a batch of different group do," she told me. "That's benignant of a Parton family trait."

I astir apt won't effort to constitute my adjacent article earlier dawn. But adjacent clip I consciousness creatively stuck, I'll return statement of that fateful nighttime erstwhile Parton's pen struck golden twice.

"When I wrote those songs… I retrieve conscionable sitting successful the area of this sofa by this fireplace that was successful the first location that Carl and I ever owned," she told me. "I conscionable retrieve the den having truthful overmuch ambiance to write. There was thing astir that fireplace, the coziness, and that area — the 1 area of the sofa wherever I was ever sitting pinch my feet up, penning and singing my songs."

Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, were joined for astir 59 years earlier Dean died successful March 2025, yet location are almost nary nationalist pictures of them together. Dean didn't for illustration the spotlight; Parton loved it. They ne'er pressured each different to change.

When the mates could walk clip together astatine home, Parton was usually cooking up a storm. She erstwhile excitedly described to maine all the things that she loved to make for Dean: French toast pinch bacon, biscuits and gravy, cornbread and pinto beans, fried chickenhearted and coleslaw.

"I conscionable navigator immoderate comes to mind and immoderate I'm successful the temper for," she added. "I tin navigator immoderate of it!"

If they were going retired to eat, Parton said she and Dean would get into "that small camper of ours" and make their measurement to a drive-thru (Taco Bell was a favorite).

"Oh, I emotion to get a bully burger retired connected the road and gallic fries for illustration everybody else," she said. "There's immoderate really bully fast-food restaurants. And we spell get basking doughnuts now and then. It depends what we're successful the temper for, whether it's tacos aliases burgers aliases immoderate — we tin spell get it!"

My interviews pinch Parton mostly focused connected food, and 1 look I had ever wanted to inquire her astir — but ever ran retired of clip — was her mother's chromatic soup.

In her 1994 memoir, "Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business," Parton revealed that her mother would ever make chromatic crockery for meal if personification successful the family was emotion down. Parton and her 11 siblings knew that if chromatic crockery was connected the menu, they had to spell extracurricular and prime a typical pebble.

The pebble that Parton's mom dropped wrong the crockery was ever from the kid who needed an other fewer sips of emotion that day.

"I tin retrieve the emotion of having my chromatic picked to spell successful the soup," Parton wrote successful her memoir. "There was magic successful those stones and a batch of contented successful that mother."

As I publication each the tributes that referenced Parton's life of philanthropy — the Imagination Library, the LGBTQ+ advocacy, the aesculapian research, the disaster alleviation — I kept reasoning astir that soup.

When Parton recovered fame, she had each the pebbles successful the world. It was her move to make chromatic soup.

Parton was ever speedy pinch a joke, moreover erstwhile it meant making nosy of herself. One of my favourite moments from our interviews was erstwhile I asked if she had immoderate manner regrets.

"Oh hellhole yeah, there's a bunch of them!" she exclaimed. "When I'm going done pictures for books aliases whatever, I virtually laughter retired large and I think, 'Oh my Lord, you must person thought you looked good.' And I must have, aliases I wouldn't person worn it! But now it's like, 'Oh, Lord, person mercy.'"

Parton was an icon, but she ne'er took herself excessively seriously. I'm going to retrieve her words the adjacent clip I cringe astatine pictures of myself from 2012.

During our past question and reply together, I asked Parton to stock her thoughts connected aging successful Hollywood, and she promptly responded: "Dollywood and Hollywood are 2 different places."

"Of course, everyone would for illustration to enactment 35 forever, and successful my mind, I benignant of do," she added pinch a laugh. "But I can't get caught up successful that trap of reasoning I've sewage to do this aliases that. The measurement I unrecorded and the measurement I work, and the measurement I feel, I'm going to make each infinitesimal count."

"I whitethorn unrecorded to beryllium 100, aliases I whitethorn dice tomorrow," she continued. "But whenever that is, I will cognize I died trying, and I will cognize I've done everything I could to make the astir of everything that I could."

Talk astir words to unrecorded by.

As I went done my question and reply notes, I saw each the questions I had compiled for Parton but ne'er asked. Some were very silly — "What revenge crockery would you make Jolene?" and "Please explicate your crush connected Jimmy Fallon" — others were much reflective. But they made maine recognize different life lesson.

Ask each the questions you can, while you still person the chance.