Tributes are pouring in for Dolly Parton from around the world after the legendary country music star died at age 80 in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday. “We may never agree on anything—except for the fact that we’ve all loved Dolly Parton,” music industry expert Eric Alpert told CTV Your Morning Vancouver on Wednesday. He said Parton’s death came as a shock after being fairly active in the past months, despite her health challenges, including working on her autobiographical Broadway musical. Her publicist has shared that the icon passed away after a “brief battle with cancer.” “It’s just astonishing to know that that she’s no longer here,” Alpert said. Parton’s decorated career and impact on the music world was especially remarkable because “she wasn’t really supposed to be here at all,” given her impoverished beginnings in rural Tennessee, he continued. The story is well-known: Parton was the fourth of 12 children raised in a two-room cabin by a sharecropper father and mother who sang Appalachian folk songs “to ease the pain of unbelievable poverty.” Independent and ambitious, she landed a spot on the Grand Ole Opry show as teenager, moved to Nashville right out of high school, began writing music professionally, and the rest is history. “Overall that was a glorious start to somebody that really should not have had that opportunity, despite where she came from,” Alpert said. “I don’t think she really ever forgot what it was like to be poor. I think that’s why she was so generous, not only with her time but with her money, giving away tens of millions of dollars throughout her career.” He said that generosity and kindness will be her legacy. “I think that’s why we were all able to relate to her, especially in an era where we’re seeing billionaires do really ridiculous things with their money,” he said. Parton famously launched the Imagination Library, a program that provides free books to children from birth to age five and expanded to Canada in 2006, inspired by her father who couldn’t read or write. Her theme park Dollywood recently began paying post-secondary tuition for all employees. “That kindness, that generosity, that wholesomeness is something that I think we’re finding out is pretty rare when it comes to celebrities these days,” Alpert said. Long before becoming one of country music’s biggest stars, Parton made her first documented Canadian concert appearance in Vancouver, performing at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Feb. 20, 1972, as part of The Porter Wagoner Travelling Show.
