By Caleb Whisenant
Dolly’s death will be told in history books, at least some.
In her death, she was able to unite President Donald Trump with former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Celebrities from rapper Eminem and social icon Shania Twain to Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Céline Dion. Presidents and prime ministers of nations around the world.
The announcement of Dolly Parton’s death has garnered more individual responses from people than could be recorded. Sociologists and historians have compared it to the media coverage surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.
They agreed on her contribution to not only modern American culture but also her timeless ability to speak – to anyone – and captivate, if not their serious engagement, at least their suspicious interest.
They praised her for talents as a singer, musician and songwriter. But according to her sister (and even Parton herself), they stayed for something they were looking for from Parton and it was usually related to Parton’s body and public image.
Dolly’s response when Barbara Walters interviewed her in the late 1970s?
“You’ve been laughing at me. But I know what I can do, and I know what I’m doing. So, the joke’s on you.”
Since her passing, the praise has been prolific. But Parton’s connection to West Virginia, and specifically Greenbrier County, has been largely overlooked.
The story of any connection Parton, as a proud Appalachian, had to West Virginia – the only state completely located within Appalachia – is often told through the familiar story of books.
In 2022, the country music legend went to Charleston to celebrate the statewide expansion of her Imagination Library, a program that now makes free books available to young children across all 55 counties.
But in Greenbrier County, Parton’s story reaches back much further.
Long before she became a global superstar, before Dollywood, “9 to 5,” “Steel Magnolias” and countless awards, Parton was part of the country music tradition that regularly brought nationally known performers to the Greenbrier Valley.
Her name remains among those of the biggest entertainers ever to take the stage at the State Fair of West Virginia stage in Fairlea.
Before anyone in the corporate music industry cared who she was as a musical artist, she performed on the Grandstand stage alongside Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Roy Rogers, and others.
The State Fair itself is deeply rooted in Greenbrier County history. What became the modern State Fair of West Virginia grew from agricultural fairs held in the Greenbrier Valley, including the Greenbrier Agricultural Society’s first annual fair in 1854. The Greenbrier Valley Fair was established at the present Fairlea site in 1921, and the state legislature designated it the State Fair of West Virginia in 1941.
By the 1960s, the fair had developed a grandstand large enough to attract national entertainers. That helped transform fair week into something more than an agricultural exhibition. It became one of the Greenbrier Valley’s most important annual entertainment events.
“The concerts stepped up to the next level, hosting nationally known artists, right here in Lewisburg,” fair historian and longtime fair employee Steve Collins said.
Among those artists was Parton.
But Parton’s legacy in the region will likely be found in books:
In June 2016, catastrophic flooding devastated portions of southern West Virginia. Rainelle, in western Greenbrier County, was among the hardest-hit communities. The Rainelle Public Library was inundated by approximately 5 feet of water, destroying its entire print and digital collection and leaving most of its furnishings beyond repair.
Parton’s own Imagination Library website documented the devastation.
“For two public libraries, Rainelle and Clendenin, the destruction is unimaginable,” the organization reported at the time.
The connection was particularly poignant because the Rainelle library was located in a community that had already been part of the broader Imagination Library effort. Parton’s organization urged supporters to help the damaged libraries rebuild.
The story eventually came full circle. Greenbrier County was not merely a name on a statewide map.
The Greenbrier County Public Library in Lewisburg participated in a statewide “Dolly Day” celebration in August 2023, hosting a reading event for local children. Forty children and 20 parents attended the event, while 135 children had participated in the library’s summer reading program.
The library’s assistant director and children’s programming coordinator, Christy Carver, emphasized why such programs matter.
