Dolly Parton's parents married when they were teens - All we know about singer’s family

Dolly Parton passed away on Tuesday. The Coat of Many Colors singer was eighty years old. Reps confirmed her death to People on Aug. 25, sharing that it followed a brief battle with cancer. The statement read,

"Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched. Her unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet, yet she was always there to offer a helping hand."

Parton was one of twelve children, raised deep in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. Her father, Robert Lee Parton, went by Lee. Her mother was Avie Lee Parton, a homemaker who held the household together while Lee worked the land as a sharecropper, taking on construction jobs whenever the family needed more.

The two had married young. Lee was only seventeen and Avie Lee just fifteen when they wed in 1939. The Islands in the Stream singer spoke of both parents warmly throughout her career, honoring them long after Lee passed in 2000 and Avie Lee followed in 2003.

Dolly Parton recalls the Christmas the whole family gave up their gifts for their mother:

In a 1990 appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Dolly Parton recalled a Christmas that had stayed with her. Her father Lee had decided he was finally going to buy Avie Lee a wedding ring, something her mother had never had. The only catch was that it meant none of the kids would be receiving any gifts that year.

Parton, who was around eight to ten years old at the time, opened up about the memory, sharing that

"My mother had never had a wedding ring. There was a houseful of kids around that time and Daddy decided he was finally going to buy Momma a wedding ring. Of course, that meant that nobody else was going to get any gifts. That costs money."

Despite walking away empty-handed that Christmas morning, Dolly Parton shared that it remained one of the happiest the family ever had, simply because of the joy it brought their mother. The Parton family was no stranger to financial hardship. That being said, as Dolly had shared over the years, the lack of money never weighed on her as a child. As per a report shared by Today, she opened up about it in 2015, saying that

"We always made jokes and said we didn't even know we were poor till some smart aleck up and told us. We didn't have any money, but we were rich in things that money don't buy. You know, like love and kindness and understanding."

Dolly Parton shares how her siblings and parents played a central role in her life and career:

Dolly Parton's family were not just her roots. They were her collaborators, her bandmates and her longest-running creative partners. When she launched her eponymous variety show in the 1970s, she made a deliberate choice about who would appear on screen first. In Time Life's Dolly: The Ultimate Collection, released in 2020, she shared that

"When I got my own TV show I thought, 'I'm most definitely going to have my family on before I bring all these big celebrities because they're the stars to me.'"

Her parents and seven siblings joined her on the show, where they performed the hymn "In the Sweet By and By" together. Introducing them to the audience, Dolly said that

"Most of the folks that you see behind me are my brothers and sisters, and the two folks responsible for all of us: my mom and daddy."

The involvement did not stop at one television appearance. Several of her siblings took part in duets with her, performed as part of her band and contributed to Dollywood throughout the years.

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As per a report shared by People, Dolly picked up a homemade guitar at seven years old and began figuring it out on her own. By ten, she was already performing publicly on a local Knoxville radio station. She reflected on what drew her toward music so naturally in an interview with People in September 2020, sharing that

"I grew up in a very musical family, all my mother's people were very musical, so I was always around people playing instruments and singing, and my mom singing the old songs. So that was just part of my being and I just knew I loved it. I just continued doing that, it was just a natural thing."

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