A Coat Of Many Colors

We were in Tennessee when Dolly Parton passed. As we drove that long road across Tennessee and Texas on our way home, I saw and read article after article about Dolly’s life. We all know almost everything about Dolly.

Out of the more than three thousand songs Dolly Parton wrote in her life, the one she said again and again was her favorite— the one she was proudest of was about a coat—“Coat Of Many Colors.” She wrote the song in 1969 while riding on Porter Wagoner’s tour bus— she was 23 years old.

When Dolly was young, her mother made her a jacket out of scraps of cloth people had given the family— rags and leftovers. Dolly was so proud of it, and wore it to school. And, children being children, they laughed at her because they knew where the fabric came from.

Dolly’s mom didn’t have a choice. Her family was very poor. The articles I read said that when Dolly was born, her father paid the doctor with a sack of cornmeal—now, that is poor!

I look back to WWII during my young life (a lean time in all our lives), and remember my grandmother buying chicken feed that came in sacks of colorful fabrics. And she would make garments from those sack fabrics. (Colorful feed sacks are a story itself in our history.) I look back on my life when my children were little. I loved to sew for myself and my girls. While they were still small, I loved to shop at the remnant tables and find bits of fabric that would look cute put together. I loved designing and creating something with those pieces. I chose to create garments from scraps—unlike Dolly’s mom, I didn’t have to—I just loved creating and designing!

Back to Dolly: We were watching the Porter Wagner show the night Dolly debuted the song,“I’ll Always Love You.” She wrote it as a farewell to Porter Wagner when she was leaving his show. Later, Whitney Houston took that beautiful song to the limit in the 1992 movie, “The Bodyguard.” The song made millions.

We’ll Always Love You, Dolly!