I was driving a loaner vehicle in Green Hills when I heard the news. My car’s AC is being repaired at an outrageous price because it’s hard to go without AC in Nashville. I was on my way to Paper Place to buy a card. The previous driver had the station on “The Highway” – Sirius XM 56 – which plays new country music. Riley Green had been singing his clever song “I ain’t as think as you drunk I am” and shortly after that the announcers were talking about Dolly and I pulled into a parking place and cried a little. Then they played “Coat of Many Colors” and I was a child again and I knew what that girl felt like even though I’d never been as poor as her. It’s the first song I remember feeling in the depth of my heart, in the down deep as they call it in the show “Silo”. I grew up on Dolly and Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle and Kris Kristofferson because that’s what my mom played in the car. She played Southern Baptist hymns on the piano in the house. When I was 13, my mom took my cousin Lisa and me to Dollywood. It was a long drive from Raleigh. I don’t remember a time in my life when Dolly’s music or presence was not in it, in some form or fashion. It’s been an astonishment to watch her become in my lifetime an American and even global icon.
For today, I’d love to add my voice to those grieving her loss and remembering her wit and wisdom, her sass and savvy, her charm, her talent, her ambition, and her generosity.
Most of all today I remember the girl who wore the coat of many colors, the mother who made it, and the woman who sang about it.
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Please share your memories of Dolly or thoughts about her if you feel like it.
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