Last summer, my boss took his sabbatical from work. Once you’ve reached 10 consecutive years, you can take off 30 business days, which ends up being at least six weeks. Paid.
He came back a different person – in the best of ways. He traveled to his 7th continent and started throwing himself out of airplanes. He calls it skydiving, but whatever. Now every time he presents to a crowd, which is often, he shares a quote attributed to Dolly Parton, sometimes with a photo of his family at Dollywood. He’s a real fan.
“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” - Dolly Parton.
Dolly didn’t follow that advice. Dolly spent her time building a living so that nobody could ever take away her life.
It’s not always realistic, for any of us, to just live life. Previously I had the boss who’d spend their vacation working, setting a horrible precedent that everyone starts to perceive as an expectation. It’s a bad example and hurts morale. Everyone questions why they’re not viewed as capable or trustworthy with this work. Who knows, maybe they hate their family and don’t want to spend time with them.
Dolly’s quote is a reminder for me of the shift I need to stick with. I’ve ruined vacations worrying about work. I’ve cancelled trips to stay home, just to work. It’s pathetic.
I’m eligible for my sabbatical next July. I dream of spending time at a writer’s residency. Which means I need to find ones of interest and get a piece ready to submit. Because you have to get accepted. It’s work I want to do. It’s important to me. It’s an investment in myself. But that’s also a luxury when you’re crossing your toes in hopes of keeping your job.
Which is actually what Dolly pushed women to do – to take control and not rely on anyone else. She encouraged women to make a living. So they had options and could take care of themselves. Financially. No matter what.
"I think it's so important that they take control of their own business," she said in 2020, accepting Billboard's Hitmaker Award at Women in Music.
It’s why Dolly started her own publishing company at 20, before the hits. Even though it wasn’t the norm, she recognized the need to own the rights to her music. So she could control how it was used.
It’s why Dolly turned down Elvis on the song “I Will Always Love You.” He wanted half the publishing rights and she refused. When Whitney Houston covered the song in 1992, the royalties banked Dolly $10 million, just in that decade.
She amassed a $650 million fortune. Dolly continued to live in the same county, kept the same aesthetic and stayed with the same husband. Unlike many who go from nothing to millions, she didn’t buy a new life.
But the stories surrounding Dolly swelled.
In 1995 Dolly founded The Imagination Library to honor her father, who couldn’t read. It has mailed more than 300 million books to kids – for free.
Dolly didn’t fund a book giveaway. She built a machine that operates the program. Her Dollywood Foundation covers administration. States and local partners fund the books and shipping, often on a 50/50 match.
The only reason we know she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University to help fund research that led to the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, is because the information was released in a research paper.
The rumors about Dolly were always bigger than her life. Her total giving is unknown because some was done through her foundation, other money was distributed by partner-funded work and there are decades of individual gifts she made and that were never tracked. What’s known is that her causes connected to the concerns she could see. Literally. Checks to families in her county when their homes burned. Books because her father couldn’t read.
She might be one of the most beloved singers, and someone who’s been able to cross divides. But she’s also been one of the most lied-about women in America.
October 2025, an AI-generated photo went around showing Reba McEntire allegedly at Dolly’s deathbed. In response, Dolly made a video: “Ooh, Lordy. They had Reba at my deathbed... I wanted you to know that I’m not dying.”
“Ooh, Lordy. They had Reba at my deathbed... I wanted you to know that I’m not dying.” - Dolly Parton
The false reports were often flattering. They weren’t stories to hurt Dolly. The stories made Dolly more of who people wanted to believe she was. She became a container people wanted to fill.
Upon her death Aug. 25, some online listed her lifetime giving at $500 million. The number can’t be verified, but it’s more flattering and less impressive than the likely truth.
“Everybody’s going to use you if they can,” Dolly is famous for saying.
“Everybody’s going to use you if they can.” - Dolly Parton
It’s why she built her living first, before anyone was listening. Dolly assumed she’d be robbed.
Dolly’s entire operating system was built on the belief a woman who doesn’t own her work will have it taken away. She built a reading operation that made states and church groups pay half, and covered the admin herself so the organization would survive her. That’s the truth that nobody is quoting.
Dolly is synonymous with Nashville, big hair and rhinestones. Was that her life or the way to make a living?
“Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because, after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest,” her nephew Bryan Seaver said when he announced her death.
She was buried next to her late husband, Carl Dean, in Nashville. Supposedly in her signature stilettos.
I wonder why she waited until the afterlife for something cozy and soft.
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Girl you're up for a sabbatical next year?? Whoa. Do something outrageous. If you're serious about a writer's retreat, PREP NOW. Wring every drop out of your time away from work. Take Dolly's words to heart.
I love this. Thanks for the details on her business acumen and philanthropic spirit.