She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs

by Sarah Smarsh

Johnny Cash famously wore black as a statement of rebellion against the status quo and on behalf of the downtrodden and was lauded for it. But that’s the difference between being a man and a woman making a thoughtful statement with their clothes.

At age seventy, Dolly Parton produced a Christmas movie in which a shooed-away sex worker returns at the end to help a little girl, and she cast herself to play the role.