Photos of the Land Where Dolly Parton Is Benefactor, Muse, and Queen
Credit to Author: Jamie Lee Curtis Taete| Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2019 22:52:52 +0000
Though it’s been half a century since Dolly Parton left Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up “dirt poor,” her influence on the area remains huge. There are businesses and buildings and charitable programs named for her, and her image gazes out from framed photos and billboards and T-shirts across the landscape. She is to Sevier County what Kim Jong-il is to Pyongyang, or Jesus Christ to the Vatican.
If you were to visit the Sevier County town of Pigeon Forge, you could hit up the Chasing Rainbows museum, a Dolly-centric attraction located inside Dollywood, a Dolly-themed amusement park, before stopping for dinner at Dolly Parton’s Stampede a few miles down the road, and ending your day by climbing into bed in the Dolly Suite of the Dollywood DreamMore Resort and Spa. If you wanted to really get into it, you could drive over to the LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville and treat yourself to a mammogram at the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services. You would almost certainly encounter someone during this day who has benefited from the charity work of Dolly, who has pumped money into a variety of programs across the area.
“I’ve been in this job for 30 years… and I can’t think of anybody else who’s impacted [this area] more than Dolly Parton, to be honest with you,” said Leon Downey, director of the Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism. “Her theme park is now the most ticketed attraction in the state of Tennessee [and] the largest employer in our city. And then when you think about all the things she’s done through her philanthropy, she’s a one of a kind person, I’ve never met anybody like her. She’s just one of the finest people I know.”
I visited Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, and Gatlinburg (the main tourist towns in Sevier County) towards the end of the 2018 summer season to take a look at Dolly’s impact on the area. Here’s what I saw:
Dinner Theater
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This article originally appeared on VICE US.