From rural Appalachia, Dolly Parton has undeniably made her way to the heart of country music. She had no big money or name but what she did have – distinctive style, overflowing talent, and good heart – were things that only a few were blessed with. And now, decades later, after she first debuted, she is named a country legend and a cultural icon of our time.
But Dolly couldn’t have done it without the loving support from her biggest fan – her one and only mama, Avie Lee Parton. Her mama also inspired many of her stories and songs, just like “Coat Of Many Colors,” which told of a time when her mama sewed her a coat from different colored fabric scraps.
But there was one story, shared a few years ago, that definitely touched everyone’s hearts. It was about the first song that Dolly ever wrote (about a little corncob doll she had). She was just a small kid back then who already knew how to sing but couldn’t write yet. And so, her mama got the pen and wrote it down for her.
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Avie Lee passed away in 2003, and Dolly never failed to remember her. And in 2020, for Mother’s Day, Dolly performed the song to honor her late mother instead of her usual photo tribute. In her introduction of the acoustic song, she said, “I don’t have my mom here anymore, but I wrote a beautiful song about her that I thought might fit everybody’s mama. Some of us are lucky enough to have our mom’s still, some of us have moms in nursing homes, some of us are lucky enough to still be living at home with our mamas.”
Watch Dolly Parton‘s sweet performance in the video below.