Before Dolly was Dolly, she played at East Burke High. With Merle Haggard

I knew the day would eventually come, but the news Tuesday that Dolly Parton had died still seemed almost impossible.

Maybe that’s because Dolly had just always been here. She had been famous longer than many of us have been alive. Styles changed, country music changed, and the world around her certainly changed. The hair got higher and the rhinestones brighter, but Dolly never seemed to stray very far from the girl who grew up in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. That could be why she always felt so familiar here in the foothills of the Blue Ridge.

Dolly was born in Sevier County, Tenn., one of 12 children raised with little money in Locust Ridge. She went on to become one of the most successful entertainers in American history, and one of those rare public figures seemingly loved by people who agreed on almost nothing else. And it turns out Dolly had more than a few connections to Burke County.

One of the best goes back 50 years. In 1976, Dolly came to East Burke High School and performed in the gym alongside Merle Haggard. Think about that for a minute. Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard, together, at East Burke High School.

The crowd reacted about like you would expect. Dolly sang “Coat of Many Colors,” “Love Is Like a Butterfly,” and “Jolene,” among others. She was already a country music star by then, but this was before “9 to 5,” before her Hollywood career, and before Dolly Parton became simply “Dolly” to most of America.

Her connection to Burke County didn’t end when that concert did.

Today, Burke County Smart Start administers Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library locally. The program, which Dolly founded in 1995 in honor of her father, who could not read or write, provides free books each month to children from birth through age 5. North Carolina funded a statewide expansion in 2017, making the program available in all 100 counties. The numbers locally surprised me.

According to Burke County Smart Start Executive Director Kathy Smith, 4,899 Burke County children have graduated from the program and another 1,692 are enrolled today. Statewide, nearly 25 million books have been mailed to North Carolina families since the expansion.

“Dolly understood that a book is more than a book,” Smith said. “It can spark imagination, build supporting vocabulary, strengthen family bonds, and open the door to a lifetime of learning.”

There’s a little bit of Dolly inside the Smart Start office on West Union Street, too. A life-sized cutout is on display along with Smith’s own Dolly Barbie from around 1978.

“We will always love her,” Smith said.

There is another, rather unusual Morganton connection. Former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle lives on a farm here. Years after surviving the 1977 plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and several others, Pyle recorded an album honoring Skynyrd’s music. His band recorded the music for “Free Bird.” The singer was Dolly Parton.

Pyle later recalled sitting with Dolly in her studio listening to the finished recording. It brought him to tears.

Dolly liked it enough to include “Free Bird” on her 2023 album “Rockstar.” The recording included Pyle and the Artimus Pyle Band, guitar from Gary Rossington, and vocals from the late Ronnie Van Zant.

Somehow one of the most famous songs in Southern rock wound its way from Lynyrd Skynyrd through Dolly Parton and back to a farm in Morganton.

Her music made one more local appearance just last year. On Nov. 30, 2025, CoMMA presented “Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol,” featuring music written by Dolly.

There are plenty of ways to measure Dolly Parton’s life. Record sales, Grammys, No. 1 hits, movies, theme parks. All the money she made and an awful lot of it that she gave away.

But I think the smaller things are better.

There are 1,692 children in Burke County receiving books in the mail today because Dolly Parton believed children ought to have them. There are people around here who can say they once sat in the East Burke High School gym and watched Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard perform live. And somewhere out on a farm in Morganton lives a legendary drummer who once sat beside her and cried as they listened to her sing “Free Bird.”

Not too bad for a girl from Locust Ridge.

Dolly belonged to the world, but she never stopped belonging to her mountains. Turns out she left a little bit of herself in ours, too.