DISCOURAGING: “We” lost a beautiful soul

Thursday, August 27, 2026

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c0ry0yzxeyxt

Dolly Parton. 
Requiescat In Pacem

My “Dolly memory” was playing “facts in five“ in a small camper with two old friends and my first sainted wife as teams. 

It was a cutthroat competition. The object of the game was to predict your partner’s answer. So we’re down to the final question  —  neck and neck  —  and the question was “who is the smartest business person your partner admires?“. 

Frau Reinke got a huge smile on her face and said loudly: “We got this one!“ and scribbled down her answer. (I had just finished my MBA and she had suffered with me along for the ride.)  When the big reveal came my answer was Dolly Parton“ she was flabbergasted. 

She had written down “Warren Buffett“. A good answer, but not the smartest. 

She ranted and raved for at least two weeks about this bitterest loss to our best fries but arch game rivals. 

How could I pick Dolly Parton and I kept giving her the same list of reasons:

#1 She never forgot a roots;

#2 she never got full of herself with all her success; and 

#3 She was the most charitable celebrity I had ever heard of up to that time
and probably since that time. 

God bless you, Ms  Parton. 

I hope all of your journeys are now trouble free and that, sometime, we’ll meet in the ever after. I’d like you to tell me all the things that I’ve done badly, wrongly, and stupidly.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Sadly. 

p.s., FWIW Warren Buffet was my third choice.  My second choice was (I forget the fellow’s name) who owned and ran a Kentucky minor league baseball team (I forget the team’s name) that had three times the profitability of any minor league team in any sport. I had done my MBA “graduation paper” on the fellow.  But, I was always super impressed with Ms. Parton.

•• ••• 2026-Aug-25 1500

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INSPIRATIONAL: Some times you can use your image to your advantage and do good for the world

Saturday, September 13, 2025

{tip of the old tin foil hat to <Stephen E. Phelps Jr.> for sharing!}

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A3MmpKyce/

True Stories

Dolly Parton once walked into a boardroom full of men in rhinestones and heels — and walked out owning her own masters. The executives thought she was a naïve country girl who’d sign anything. Instead, she quietly bought back her publishing rights, a move so rare at the time that even industry sharks didn’t see it coming. Decades later, when Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” sold 20 million copies, the checks went to Dolly. She didn’t just write the song — she owned it.

That’s the paradox of Dolly. She leaned into the dumb-blonde jokes, the wigs, the over-the-top curves — and used them as camouflage. People underestimated her, and she liked it that way. Behind the glitter was one of the shrewdest business operators in music. She built Dollywood in rural Tennessee, turning her home into a tourist empire. She funneled money into children’s literacy programs, giving away more than 200 million books. And she did it all while letting the world laugh at her “backwoods Barbie” image.

The kicker? She admitted the caricature was intentional. “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she quipped. The hair, the nails, the laugh — they were her armor, her Trojan horse. She could sparkle her way past prejudice and still walk out with the contract that made her untouchable.

Even Elvis tried to own her. When Colonel Tom Parker demanded half the rights to “I Will Always Love You” for Presley to record it, Dolly said no — sobbing in her car, heartbroken, but unyielding. It may be the single most profitable “no” in music history.

Dolly Parton’s story isn’t about a country diva in sequins. It’s about a woman who weaponized underestimation, sold the world a joke it wanted to hear, and laughed all the way to the bank — while handing out books to children on the side.

# – # – # – # – # 

Way back when, in the 70s, some of my friends were playing a game.  I think it was called “Facts in Five”?  One of the challenges was to name the smartest person you knew of.  My wife assured everyone that she had my answer cold. “Einstein”!  Nope, I had written down “Dolly Parton”.  She went nuts and the entire group.  I explained that she was the shrewdest business lady and the most charitable. I knew of Dollywood and her book donations. 

This story reminded me of that game and added some details about Ms. Parton IDK. 

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