Cynthia Jade’s Emotional Dolly Parton Tribute: “I Spent So Much of My Life Feeling Like I Had to Hide My Body”

Cynthia Jade thanked the queen of country music, Dolly Parton, for teaching her not to be ashamed of her body. Jade paid tribute to Dolly Parton, who sadly passed away aged 80.

Dolly Parton’s family confirmed that she died on Tuesday. From a humble start in the log cabin in the Tennessee mountains, Dolly managed to become one of the world’s most recognizable and influential entertainers. Dolly wrote more than 400 songs that sold more than 100 million copies and generated more than 1 billion online streams.

Dolly Parton’s legacy was special to Cynthia Jade.

“I LOVE DOLLY!!!! Dolly was one of those women who made me feel like I never had to make myself smaller to be beautiful or taken seriously. As a naturally busty woman, I spent so much of my life feeling like I had to hide my body or tone myself down to be considered classy. Dolly somehow made femininity, curves, big hair, glamour, and all feel like something to celebrate instead of apologize for. She inspired me to be confident, to have fun with being a woman, and most importantly, to just be myself. There will never be another Dolly!!!! 🤍” Jade says.

Cynthia Jade’s favorite Dolly Parton song is “Jolene.”

Released in 1973, the song topped the charts, crossed over to the pop charts, and launched Dolly’s worldwide fame. It has a catchy rhythm and Dolly’s pleading chorus, and artists such as Miley Cyrus, Olivia Newton-John, and The White Stripes have covered it many times. Parton revealed in an NPR interview that it was about a flirtatious bank teller who seemed to like her husband, Carl Dean, whom she married in the mid-1960s and who died in 2025 at the age of 82.

Born into a family of twelve that she called “dirt poor,” Dolly was singing in the church when her grandfather was preaching, learned how to play guitar, appeared on local television by the age of ten, and performed at the Grand Ole Opry at the age of thirteen when she was introduced there by Johnny Cash. Dolly moved to Nashville after graduating from high school in 1964, following her uncle and songwriter Bill Owens.

Her work with Porter Wagoner on his show helped Dolly grow as an actress and sign her recording deal with RCA. She scored her first solo hit, “Joshua,” and entered the top five with “Coat of Many Colors,” a song dedicated to her mother’s sewing from scraps. Following “Jolene,” Parton released “I Will Always Love You,” a song addressed to Wagoner as a goodbye gift. She refused to give it to Elvis Presley so she wouldn’t share the publishing rights. Whitney Houston recorded it for her film “The Bodyguard,” and the song became a bestseller. In 1994, Whitney Houston got the Grammy for this song, and Dolly gave her one.

Besides being a singer, Dolly Parton became a movie star too with the help of the comedy “9 to 5.” Then she starred in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias.” Dolly earned 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, the third-most nominations for women in Grammy history after Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In 2025, she received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Her philanthropic activities included Imagination Library, which sends children free books after Parton saw how hard it was for her father to read. She also ran her foundation, which sent monthly payments to people whose houses were destroyed by the 2016 Smoky Mountains fires. Dollywood theme park in the Smoky Mountains foothills near her birthplace became an economic phenomenon of Appalachia.

She avoided talking about her political views, saying on a podcast with Jad Abumrad that she had fans on both sides and had long since learned to keep silent about it. The stage show “DOLLY: A True Original Musical” was supposed to open in December 2026.