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Flowers and notes left outside Dolly Parton's house in Brentwood, Tennessee, on August 26, 2026. [AFP]
How shall I remember Dolly Parton, who passed on last week? She was more than the light of a clear blue morning. To borrow her own words, she gave the world musical islands in the stream.
Dolly was the heart rending queen of country music, who taught us that scraps can become something beautiful. While she composed thousands of songs, Coat of Many Colours vivifies lives many of us have experienced. Born in a poor family, her mother made her a coat from pieces of cloth, because there wasn’t money for anything better.
She wore her coat proudly, as a tribute to the love that went into each stitch. Others saw poverty in her coat. She only saw love, even as she remembered Joseph’s coat of many colours in the Bible.
