30 Rare Photos of a Very Young and Beautiful Dolly Parton in the 1960s

Born on January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, Dolly Rebecca Parton has traveled far beyond her roots. As one of twelve children born to a sharecropper in a one-room cabin in the Tennessee mountains, Parton was raised in relative poverty, but surrounded by music. With a musical career that launched at the age of ten, Parton has been performing publicly for nearly fifty of her fifty-eight years, becoming one of the most celebrated and most successful country music stars. Parton’s superstardom, and the various genres in which she has excelled, are attested to by her many awards--more than two dozen albums gone gold, platinum or double platinum, an Academy Award nomination, Emmy and Golden Globe award nominations, countless Grammy nominations, and eight Grammy Awards, as well as dozens of People’s Choice and Country Music Association awards.

Parton’s career took inspiration from earlier female pioneers in country music, such as Rose Maddox and Molly O’Day of the 1940s, Kitty Wells of the 1950s, and Brenda Lee and Patsy Cline of the 1960s. Parton, like these women, significantly contributed to the country music scene, largely dominated by men until the 1950s, simply by creating a female identity and giving voice to female perspectives. When Parton emerged in the late 1960s, women in rural and working-class southern America were the primary audience for country music. These women were restricted to relatively subordinate roles, so that even the initially mild, but nevertheless empowering, statements found in the lyrics of these female country singers had a real impact. Parton’s progressive lyrics and her willingness to speak out despite potentially adverse consequences made her stand out among female performers.

Even as a student, Parton worked hard on her music career, making recordings for three different labels before graduating from high school. Her earliest recorded song, “Puppy Love,” made when she was around twelve years old, already shows her mastery of the Hank Williams and Kitty Wells honky-tonk style. Her rendition of six songs “made famous by Kitty Wells” (appearing on one side of Hits Made Famous by Country Queens), recorded for the Somerset company in 1962, was actually only three songs made famous by Wells. Two of the other three were traditional ballads, and the last, written in modern ballad style, was by Parton herself.

After graduating from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville, where she pursued her music career full time. She soon signed with the Monument label, which was more interested in marketing her as a pop singer than as a country singer, as is evident in many of her early recordings for them. But Parton was up to the challenge, and penned several catchy pop songs. During this time, she also sold her songs around Nashville. Her big break came in 1966 when country singer Bill Phillips heard Parton’s demo for her song “Put it Off Until Tomorrow,” which she had written and copyrighted the previous year. Not only did Phillips want to record the song, he wanted to record it using the “girl singer on the demo.” The Decca recording turned into one of the biggest country hits of 1966 (and BMI Song of the Year), and brought Parton to the attention of DJs all over the country, both for her beautiful back-up vocal work, and also for her heartbreaking song, which still stands as one of her best. After the success of this song, Parton started recording more country material for Monument, including her first solo hit, “Dumb Blonde,” which made it to the charts in 1967.

All of a sudden, Parton was a big name in the music business. Porter Wagoner invited her to be his new “girl singer” on his TV show after her predecessor, Norma Jean, left to get married. (As a supplement to Parton’s solo career, Wagoner and Parton would make records as a duo for the next eight years.) In 1967, Monument put out her first solo LP, Hello, I’m Dolly. Shortly afterwards, RCA Victor –– at the time one of the biggest of the big record labels –– signed her, thus beginning a collaboration that lasted nearly 20 years. From being a regular on the Grand Ole Opry, and singing crossover hits that increased her popularity both as a country music and as a pop music star, to enjoying a syndicated television show and roles in several box-office hits (such as 9 to 5), as well as collaborations with numerous major music stars and innumerable awards, Parton climbed from local star to regional, then national, and finally international star. Her discography alone, especially during the early and mid-1970s, is evidence of her prolific talent and success. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she usually released three or more LPs of new material each year.