The Horrible Rumor About Dolly Parton That Almost Made Her Drop out of High School
High school was difficult for Dolly Parton. She was not well-liked by her peers. Rumors about the “Jolene” singer ran rampant through the school, but one particular lie went too far. It was so horrible that Parton considered dropping out.
The rumor
Parton was used to receiving judging looks at school. But one Monday, there seemed to be more darting glances and hushed whispers at her expense than normal. The “Coat of Many Colors” singer was suddenly a complete outcast. She asked one of her few girlfriends, Janice, what was going on. She said: “You mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Parton asked.
Janice appeared puzzled and disturbed. Finally, Parton convinced her friend to tell her what the rumor was.
The story was that Parton had been sexually assaulted by a group of men behind A.J. King’s Lumberyard.
“My mouth fell open,” Parton wrote in her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “I was absolutely devastated. I couldn’t say another word to Janice, though I have always been grateful to her for her honesty.”
Dolly Parton wanted to drop out of school
After her conversation with Janice, Parton walked straight home.
“As I walked, I thought about the story and how twisted the minds of those who created it must have been,” she wrote. “If it had been true, wouldn’t I have been an innocent victim rather than someone to be shunned and looked down upon?”
Parton was furious. By the time she arrived home, she was hurt. She told her mother what had happened.
“I told her I was never going back to school,” wrote Parton. “Mama and Daddy had never forced any of us to go to school. There was plenty to be done at home, helping to raise the younger kids and doing chores. But Mama knew this was about more than school. She had a way of speaking and of holding her head up that said, ‘You know I’m right.’ And she always was.”
Parton’s mother convinced her to stay in school
Parton’s mom told her: “All right, you can quit if you want to and let everybody think the story is true, or you can march right back in there with your head held high, knowing the truth in your own heart, and show them you’re better than they are.”
The “Down From Dover” singer ultimately agreed with her mother. She went back to school the next day.
“School was not something I would have fought for under ordinary circumstances,” wrote Parton. “But, by God, no vicious, lying cowards were going to deprive me of it. Mama was right. It wasn’t about school at all. It was about self-respect.”
How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
