{"id":2329,"date":"2026-09-04T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/09\/04\/2026-09-04-long-live-the-queen\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:07:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:07:53","slug":"2026-09-04-long-live-the-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2026\/09\/04\/2026-09-04-long-live-the-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Live the\u00a0Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Luke Paglia<\/a> · Managing Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dolly
Dolly Parton plays the guitar on stage. \u2014 PINTEREST<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For many years, she reigned over the country music industry with her soulful lyrics and twangy tunes and took the screen by storm in many movies and TV shows across the decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly Parton sadly died at the age of 80 on Aug. 25. However, the legacy she left in the music and media industries will certainly not be forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parton\u2019s career started at 10 years old when she began performing music on Knoxville radio stations. She was instantly a hit, and even the world\u2019s biggest country music stars recognized her. One of these was Johnny Cash, who invited her to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, the most prestigious of stages in the country music world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years later, Parton moved to Nashville to pursue her career in country music and released her first album \u201cHello, I\u2019m Dolly.\u201d In just a few short years, she achieved her first solo No. 1 single with the song \u201cJoshua.\u201d In this time, she also released some of her all-time popular songs including \u201cJolene,\u201d \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d and \u201c9 to 5.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parton\u2019s career did not end here, though. In 1980, she made her film debut in \u201c9 to 5,\u201d which earned an Oscar nomination for the title track. She was also featured in various other quite popular projects across the 1980s and 1990s and earned a couple of award nominations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Parton received numerous awards, including the Living Legend Medal from the Library of Congress, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recognized her for selling over 100 million units worldwide. One of the last things Parton did in her career was release a collaborative rock album, \u201cRockstar,\u201d for which she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parton impacted the country and even the world in a much larger way than just through the entertainment industry. She supported many charities and foundations throughout her career and ultimately was a huge part of paving the path in country music for future female country music stars to walk down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to imagine the world without Dolly. Dolly\u2019s heart was as big as her talent. She was not only a great singer\/song writer\/actress\/TV star. Dolly also lived her art,\u201d artist Cyndi Lauper said. \u201cShe used her art, her fame and her money to help so many people. I can\u2019t even tell you how many times I\u2019ve thought to myself, \u2018What would Dolly do?\u2019 She was a great role model for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many years, she reigned over the country music industry with her soulful lyrics and twangy tunes and took the screen by storm in many movies and TV shows across the decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[21,73,162],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-luke-paglia","tag-issue-2026-09-04"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",315,494,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",96,150,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",191,300,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",315,494,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",315,494,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",315,494,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2026-09-04-16-long-live-the-queen-1.jpg",315,494,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"For many years, she reigned over the country music industry with her soulful lyrics and twangy tunes and took the screen by storm in many movies and TV shows across the decades.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2569,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions\/2569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}