There aren’t many people as universally beloved as Dolly Parton. So, she when died, on August 25 at age 80, the tributes were both swift and plentiful. Among the videos making the rounds online were clips from a 1977 interview with Barbara Walters. As is often the case when it comes to decades-old interviews with female celebrities, many of Walters’s questions were, in modern parlance, pretty cringe.
But what stands out is the grace and dignity with which Parton responds to inquiries about her body and her hair and clothes. She is open, honest and unapologetically herself.
“I don’t like to be like everybody else,” she says in response to a question about how she dresses. “I’ve often made the statement that I would never stoop so low as to be fashionable. That’s the easiest thing in the world to do.”
It’s true that she wasn’t like anyone else — and thank goodness for that. Her talent was legendary, her philanthropy was inspiring, and her personal style — a riot of blonde wigs and rhinestone-studded ensembles — was delightfully outrageous. So, we gathered some of our favorite photos to remember how perfectly Dolly she was. As she noted in the interview, “I like the kind of person that I am.”
