Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton’s life has inspired movies, dinner theaters, a theme park, and now...a college course! The world’s most famous Smoky Mountain native has been honored with her very own class at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, which is located less than an hour from Sevier County.

While Dolly Parton turned 71 in January, she will be having another “birthday” this spring! On May 3, 1987, the city of Sevierville, TN unveiled a bronze statue of the country legend in front of the Sevier County Courthouse. This year, the iconic Dolly Parton statue will turn 30 years old, and Sevierville is marking the occasion with a special exhibit that is free and open to the public. Visit My Smokies has all of the details on the new exhibit.

We are so thankful for Dolly Parton and what she’s doing to help take care of her Smoky Mountain hometown.

This November, our favorite hometown hero is coming back to the Smokies - and she’s bringing a few friends with her! To celebrate the premiere of the Coat of Many Colors sequel, Dolly Parton and the stars of the TV movie will attend a special red carpet event at Dollywood. Visit My Smokies has all of the details on the celebrities’ visit to the theme park.

2016 has been a huge year for Dolly Parton! Her new Pure & Simple album debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, she launched her largest tour in decades, and she celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary with husband Carl Dean. As the year draws to a close, Dolly’s world domination continues. It was recently announced that the country star would be honored with the “Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 50th Annual CMA Awards in November. Visit My Smokies has all the details on Dolly’s latest achievement.

The Dollywood theme park is unique in that its identity isn’t tied to blockbuster movies or famous cartoon characters. In contrast to other parks around the country, Dollywood is primarily the vision of one person: country superstar Dolly Parton. Dolly’s fingerprints are all over the theme park, which makes Dollywood feel more grounded in reality, and more personal. While some references to Dolly’s music and career are easy to spot, there are also less obvious allusions to Parton’s life that you may not have noticed. Visit My Smokies did a little research to find out how these five things at Dollywood were inspired by the life and times of Dolly Parton:

As the election season kicks into high gear, Visit My Smokies would like to make a formal endorsement for the U.S. presidential race. While there are lots of strong candidates running this year, we think that there is one woman who could truly bring our country together: Dolly Rebecca Parton. Of course, we love the fact that Dolly is a native of our beloved Sevier County, Tennessee, but our endorsement is informed by much more than mere geographical bias. Here are five reasons a Parton presidency is exactly what America needs.

After we found out we had the chance to interview Dolly Parton, we asked our Facebook fans to “Ask Dolly ANYTHING about the Smoky Mountains” so we could find the best questions for the interview!

Country music star, Dolly Parton, and her longtime husband, Carl Dean, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary!

With 46 nominations each, Dolly Parton was tied with a current pop vocalist for the ‘Queen of Grammy Nominations’ spot.