Dolly Parton’s Dad Was Sued After a Violent and Bloody Fight With Neighbors

Upon learning that his children had been in a long-running feud with a neighboring family, Dolly Parton’s dad tried to resolve the matter. Instead, his involvement made things considerably worse. While trying to talk to the neighbors, the musician’s father found himself involved in a vicious fight. When it was over, the neighbors took him to court.

Dolly Parton’s dad landed in court after a fight with neighbors

Parton’s father, Lee Parton, learned his children had been getting into physical fights with neighboring children on their walk home from school. He decided to talk to the adults in the neighboring home to put an end to things. He brought two sons, David and Denver, with him, and the situation quickly escalated. The argument became physical and so vicious that Lee feared for his sons’ lives. 

“He fought back mightily,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “He hurt two or three of them enough to take them out of the fight, including a woman who Daddy says was trying to beat him with something that looked like the handle of a hoe. Even at that, he had not intentionally hurt the woman, but in trying to defend himself he had broken her nose, and incidentally one of his own fingers, which is still crooked to this day.”

Lee, David, and Denver eventually ran home, but the feud was far from over. 

“The next part of the saga was almost comical,” Parton wrote. “The woman with the broken nose had decided to sue Daddy in civil court. I don’t know what she expected to get from him, but with that same ‘blood from a turnip’ kind of logic, Daddy countersued. Daddy and Mama had to go to court, and the proceedings drew a big crowd.”

Dolly Parton’s dad didn’t face punishment for the fight

Parton said the court case was big news in town.

“In local circles it had taken on the legendary status of the Hatfields and McCoys,” she explained. “This was in part because the stories had been greatly exaggerated, but primarily because people had very little else to talk about.”

According to Parton, the case quickly fell apart under scrutiny from the judge.

“Daddy is an honest man, and as he told his story I’m sure the court could tell that,” she wrote. “Witnesses for the other family couldn’t seem to get their stories straight. One would tell a version of the story that Daddy’s attorney could use to poke holes in another one’s story, and on it went. Finally, the woman with the broken nose pulled a dramatic fainting spell on the witness stand. The judge threw the case out of court.”

The musician said the two families have repaired their relationship

Verbal disagreements, violence, and a court case aren’t easy things to recover from as far as neighborly relations go. According to Parton, though, the two families are no longer at each other’s throats.

“That feud went on for many years,” she wrote, “but I am happy to say that those people are now good neighbors of mine and all of the Partons.”