Add The New York Post on Google She sang “9-to-5” — but worked 24-7 to help her hometown.
Dolly Parton never forgot her roots in the backwoods of Tennessee — and used the money she got as a global singing star to open a theme park in her hometown that became the community’s economic lifeline.
As the beloved “Dreamer in Chief” at Dollywood, the country legend — who passed away at 80 Tuesday — drew millions to the formerly depressed rural area to enjoy a one-of-kind and down-home experience she personally curated.
“Dollywood was really the catalyst that has allowed our area to take off,” Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters told The Post Thursday. “Her promotion of the area all over the world — you can’t buy publicity like that.
“Everywhere she went, she talked about her home and how beautiful it was here, and how great the people were,” he added. “That means so much to us.”
Life wasn’t easy for the Partons growing up — the family cabin had no running water or electricity, and Dolly’s illiterate father got by as a farmer and laborer.
That was an existence typical of the Tennessee community, and made up the formative experience that Parton expressed in song to world-wide acclaim.
Instead of turning her success into a glam life in Hollywood, Parton instead created Dollywood by buying an old theme park called Silver Dollar City in 1986 and hiring locals to help her welcome the world to her birthplace.
The park now sprawls across 168 acres in the town of Pigeon Forge, and is filled with roller coasters, water rides, an entire steam train and buildings evoking traditional Appalachia and its bygone ways of life.
Central to the park is a board by board recreation of the very cabin Dolly lived in after she was born in 1946 — and even her own kin have a hard time believing the huge family got by in such a small space.
“I can’t imagine how they had so many people in that little house,” Dolly’s niece, Jennifer, said Thursday. “They really had to get along.”
“I was 12 when Dollywood took over from Silver Dollar City, so I remember that,” Jennifer added, referring to the old theme park Dolly bought. “It has changed the community quite a lot. We get lot of traffic now.”
That change today equates to about 4 million people visiting Dollywood each year, and another 21 million pouring into Sevier County thanks to Dolly’s promotion of her hometown, according to Mayor Waters.
And the impact of that traffic is even bigger — Dollywood brings about $2 billion to Sevier County businesses, and is the county’s largest employer with about 4,000 jobs in peak season.
“That’s a positive economic impact from the dream that our dreamer-in-chief had,” said Dollywood president Eugene Naughton.
“She did a great job to help the whole town grow,” he added.
Just as Graceland became a pilgrimage for lovers of Elvis Presley after the King’s passing, Dollywood is sure to become the place where fans will travel to pay tribute to the Queen — and they were already lining up in the days after she died.
“We made the decision after she passed away, we was definitely gonna come,” said Eric Hicks, a 44-year-old oilfield worker who hauled his wife and two of their kids from Virginia to Tennessee to pay their respects to Dolly a day after her death from cancer was announced.
“I feel like she was somebody that America don’t particularly have anymore,” he added. “She was somebody that knowed how to work hard, knowed how to accomplish things, and that’s just something that America lacks now.”
Hicks was one of countless people whose own life was touched by Dolly’s famous generosity — all five of his children grew up reading books donated by Dolly’s Imagination Library, a charity which mails books to kids monthly from birth to kindergarten at no cost.
“We lack people in this country that can come up from a small town with no money and learn and progress,” Hicks said. “Even though you get sent back, you’re able to move on forward and accomplish something. That’s something you just don’t see anymore.”
A moment of silence was held for Dolly at the park around midday Wednesday, while cards and flowers left by loving fans were piled at the entrance gates.
And in downtown Sevierville, more tributes surrounded a statue of the country star outside the County Courthouse.
“She knew how tough it was in Sevier County before our tourism grew and she wanted to give jobs to our families,” said Don Gibson, 65, a deputy with the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office standing guard outside the courthouse.
“And she certainly has, she kept her word. Miss Dolly was a real friend to Sevier County, she never forgot where she was from.”
