Dolly Parton was a true great of country music, a woman who conquered a hard-bitten male-dominated industry and a working-class heroine who never forget her roots. But above all, the singer, who has died aged 80, was a figure of huge warmth and kindness – an all-too-rare example of a celebrity who used their fame to lift others up and, as best she could, to help make the world a better place. As with many great figures in music she was a contradiction. When she played Dublin’s 3Arena in June 2014, she reeled off her familiar line about it taking “a lot of money to look this cheap”. Yet while she embraced glitter and glam in her image, her music was hewn from the rust and soil of the Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee. It is those songs for which she will be remembered – no matter how much she played down her abilities by jokingly describing herself as a “Backwoods Barbie”. She wrote the magisterial romantic ballad I Will Always Love You, but declined to have Elvis Presley record it when his management tried to stiff her on royalties (it later became a smash for Whitney Houston). Then there was Jolene – the 1973 hit that has been covered by more than 90 artists, including Beyoncé, who made it the centrepiece of her 2024 Cowboy Carter album. Meanwhile, Parton’s duet with Kenny Rogers, Islands in the Stream, was one of the great meeting of musical minds – a slice of pure schmaltz that glittered like a disco ball in a bar room. Fans leave flowers and memorabilia at the Hollywood Walk of Fame star of singer and actress Dolly Parton. Photograph: Chris Torres/EPA She was country royalty with album sales of more than 100 million and 10 Grammy awards. But rather than count her riches she tried put them to work through a multitude of philanthropic projects. Born to an illiterate father, she campaigned to help ensure children received the education denied her family. One of the initiatives she put her money behind was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which gave free books to children across the world, including in Ireland, which became the fifth country to participate in the programme when it launched here in 2019. A fan holds a Dolly Parton LP near her Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Photograph: Chris Torres/EPA That was five years after her final tour of Ireland. She had played Dublin and Cork and the gigs had felt like a homecoming for the singer as she crossed the ocean to find her music as adored in Ireland as back home in Tennessee. She repaid that love many times over, dazzling the audience with her powerful voice, her glitzy glamour and songs that sparkled with wonder, wisdom and wit.