Dolly Parton’s death feels like one of those losses that is much bigger than music. She was a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist, but somehow none of those descriptions quite capture what she meant to people. Dolly became one of those rare artists who could remain completely herself while becoming almost everybody’s.

Born into extraordinary poverty in the hills of Tennessee, one of 12 children growing up in a two-room cabin without electricity or running water, Dolly found her escape in music. She began writing songs as a child and by her teenage years was already performing professionally. But it was her songwriting that would eventually make her immortal.

There was an extraordinary simplicity to the way Dolly wrote. She could take something deeply personal and make it feel universal. I Will Always Love You, written as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner, became a country hit in her own voice before Whitney Houston transformed it into a global phenomenon almost two decades later. Dolly’s song survived that transformation because its emotional core was so simple: sometimes loving someone means knowing when to let them go.

Then there was Jolene. Perhaps no other Dolly song demonstrates her genius quite so perfectly. A woman pleading with another woman not to take the man she loves should, on paper, be intensely personal. Yet Dolly made the emotion so naked—jealousy, insecurity, fear, vulnerability—that almost anyone could find themselves somewhere inside it.

And everyone has. Jolene has been covered across generations and genres—from Olivia Newton-John and The White Stripes to Miley Cyrus, Pentatonix, Lil Nas X and Beyoncé. More than 450 versions have reportedly been recorded. That is the real measure of a great songwriter: not how faithfully others reproduce your song, but how naturally they can make it their own. Every new Jolene seems to reveal another shade of the original.

Songs like Coat of Many Colors, 9 to 5, Here You Come Again and Islands in the Stream showed the same gift. Dolly could write about poverty without self-pity, ambition without arrogance, heartbreak without melodrama and love without sentimentality.

But Dolly’s legacy was never confined to music. Her Imagination Library, established in 1995, grew into an extraordinary literacy programme providing free books to children. Her philanthropy extended into education, healthcare, disaster relief and countless other causes.

And there was another side of Dolly that I have always admired: her instinct to make people feel welcome. Despite coming from the deeply conservative world of country music, she consistently expressed support for LGBTQ+ people and spoke about the importance of loving and accepting people for who they are. She defended her LGBTQ+ fans when others questioned her association with them, and her Dollywood enterprise has long maintained an inclusive approach to its guests and employees. She never seemed interested in telling people how they should live. Her message was simpler: live your life, love who you love, and try to be kind.

I’ve always found something deeply comforting about Dolly. Beneath the enormous hair, rhinestones and carefully constructed persona was a woman who understood people. She knew what it meant to be poor, underestimated and laughed at—and she never allowed any of it to make her bitter.

Perhaps that is why her music travelled so far beyond country music. Dolly could belong to Nashville, Hollywood, Broadway and popular culture and still sound like the woman from the Tennessee mountains.

She once wrote about a coat made from scraps of cloth. It feels like a beautiful metaphor for her life. She took whatever life gave her—poverty, pain, humour, faith, ambition, love—and stitched it all together into something extraordinary.

And perhaps that is what Dolly leaves us with: not just songs, but pieces of herself that we will continue to wear.

By Meraj Hasan

Meraj Hasan ‘meem’ is a Dubai based business and marketing consultant, poet and a music journalist. He also has a wide range of vinyl in his collection ranging from jazz, blues, classical, rock, pop and old Hindi film albums. Meraj's first book of poems, ‘Khyaalon Ki Tapri’ was an instant bestseller and he has just released his second book of poems, 'Boondon Si Baatein'.