Letter from the Editor By Marcy Nathan, Creative Director Long before the 1980 release of the working women’s comedy 9 to 5, Dolly Parton showed women we have more strength than we think we do, especially when we work together.
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went to college in Nashville, Tennessee, where Dolly Parton’s influence was everywhere, and the higher the hair, the closer to God. Dolly’s rags to rhinestones story started four hours away, in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. She was the fourth child of 12. Her entire family was musical. She and her sisters performed in churches as the Parton Sisters. And she recorded her first song, at age 11, with her mother’s brother Bill Owens. Dolly made her Grand Ole Opry debut alongside her Uncle Bill at age 13. Johnny Cash, the Man in Black himself, introduced her, and she received three ovations — a sign of things to come. She was just 21 when she joined Porter Wagoner’s popular syndicated countrymusic variety TV show, beating out Connie Smith, Dottie West and Tammy Wynette for the spot. That’s when she came up with the makeup, wigs and big, blonde hairpieces that would become her signature look.
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She refused to let others’ opinions hold her back. “I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.” What I have learned from Dolly is that it’s okay to be ambitious in your career. And it’s okay not to take yourself too seriously. “I'm not offended [by the dumb blond jokes],” Dolly told an interviewer. “I know I’m not dumb…and I also know that I’m not blonde.” Now that I’m getting older, I think about the legacy I would like to leave through my work…
Dolly left the Porter Wagoner show to start her solo career in 1974 over creative differences. But instead of being rewarded for standing up for herself, she was criticized for exactly that. Even now, we still tend to reward ambitious men and criticize ambitious women. We should reflect on why that is, exactly…
Dolly was inspired by her father’s inability to read and write to establish the Imagination Library, which has gifted nearly 175 million free books to nearly 2 million children worldwide. I was at her concert in New Orleans in 2016 when the wildfires were devastating East Tennessee; they clearly weighed heavily on her mind. Dolly personally pledged financial support to the families affected, and her Dollywood Foundation ended up giving $12.5 million to help rebuild Sevier County (Sevierville is Dolly’s hometown). Early in the pandemic, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, money that helped fund pandemic-related research projects, including one related to the Moderna vaccine. And her legacy is still growing.
Dolly crossed over from country to pop (and back), hosted her own daytime variety show, and starred in a series of Hollywood movies, including 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.
Last year we founded Women in Grocery — WIG for short, and for Dolly, who has never been shy about her love of wigs; she owns at least 365 of them. When Anthony J.
I read somewhere that Cher’s backstage request is a separate room for her wigs — I can’t imagine Dolly wanting to be that far away from hers!
Well, I tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen, Pour myself a cup of ambition, And yawn and stretch and try to come to life. Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin’, Out on the street, the traffic starts jumpin’, With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5.
Rouse, Sr., opened his first store in 1960, the grocery industry was predominantly male — all of retail was back then. Women are now an indispensable part of our industry. WIG is our sincere commitment to connect women within our company and provide them with more opportunities to learn and succeed. Rouses Markets is full of successful, powerful and influential women. WIG provides a forum to share challenges, solutions and lessons learned. And, occasionally, to remind these women pouring time, energy and passion into our business, that no matter how much we love what we do, as Dolly says, “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
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