(BBC) – Dolly Parton was a lot of things – a country musician, a philanthropist, an actress, a storyteller and a businesswoman. One thing she never was, however, was a politician.
But don’t think it’s because no one asked her. In 1999, during an appearance on the talk show Prime Time Country!, the singer was asked by a young woman in the audience if she would ever run for office.
Dolly demurred, with her characteristic razor-sharp wit. “I think of myself more as a diplomat. That’s the kind of people who tell you to go to hell in such a way you look forward to the trip.”
It’s something she’d had to do many times over a career that spanned decades and genres. With a fanbase that included grandmas and Gen-Zers, Republicans and Democrats, drag queens and evangelicals, Parton was a kind of unicorn in America’s polarised society.
“She is the one person who straddles political divides… the so-called culture wars,” said Sarah Phillips, who teaches an Anthropology of Dolly Parton course at Indiana University – and still finds it hard to speak about the singer in the past tense. The professor “curled into a ball” in her office and “just sobbed” upon hearing of the death.
A recent poll by YouGov said that Parton’s net approval rating was 65% – compared with Barack Obama’s 14%, Taylor Swift’s 3%, Donald Trump’s -19% and Joe Biden’s -18%.
