Parton's musical ambitions started incredibly early. At around seven years old, she made her own guitar using an old mandolin and two bass guitar strings because her family couldn't afford a proper instrument. | © Vanity Fair
Dolly Parton was born into a poor family in rural Tennessee, and her parents couldn't afford to pay the doctor who delivered her. Instead, her father reportedly compensated the physician with a bag of oatmeal. | © Dolly Parton
Parton grew up in an enormous family, with her parents, Robert and Avie Lee Parton, having 12 children in total. She was the fourth child, and many of her brothers and sisters loved or played music. | © Dolly Parton
Parton wasn't just singing as a youngster. In fact, she was already writing songs. The Library of Congress records that she wrote her first known song, "Little Tiny Tassle Top", in 1951, when she was just five years old. Her songwriting career would eventually produce thousands of compositions. | © Michael Ochs Archives
Parton's childhood career progressed remarkably quickly from that point onwards. In 1959, at only 13, she made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where Johnny Cash introduced her. She performed his song "You Gotta Be My Baby" and received three encores. | © Dolly Parton
Parton was a co-owner of Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park that bears her name. However, there's just one problem: she doesn't ride the roller coasters. Parton has explained that she gets motion sickness and is "a little claustrophobic." Naturally, that would be a big reason why she is unable to hop on the rides. | © Entertainment Weekly
Parton's elaborate hairstyles are so iconic that wigs have become an important part of both her appearance and style. At the time of her death, she allegedly had accumulated over 350 wigs over the years. If you think about it, you could technically wear one for each day of the year without ever repeating them. | © Women
Despite her famously glamorous appearance, Parton has tattoos that she had kept hidden for almost her entire career. She has explained that some of them were small, personal designs meant to cover surgical scars. During a 1999 interview with Jay Leno, she revealed that she had a tattoo of a little angel and one of a butterfly. | © Popsugar
Elvis Presley reportedly wanted to record Parton's "I Will Always Love You", which sounds like the sort of opportunity any songwriter would immediately accept. However, Parton refused when Elvis' camp wanted a significant portion of the publishing rights. Keeping control of the song ultimately proved to be a great decision, as it is one of the singer's most famous songs. | © The Boot
One of the strangest pieces of Dolly trivia involves an animal rather than her life. The world-famous cloned sheep, Dolly, was named after Parton because the cells used in the cloning process came from mammary tissue. Scientists apparently decided the country superstar was the obvious namesake. | © Smithsonian Magazine
The woman named Jolene wasn't simply a fictional character invented for one of Parton's biggest hits. The 1973 hit song "Jolene" was actually inspired by a real bank teller she believed was flirting with her lifelong husband, Carl Dean. | © Dolly Parton
One of Parton's greatest accomplishments has little to do with music. She founded Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in 1995, inspired partly by her father's inability to read and write. The program provides free books to children every month from birth to age five. As of the latest information, the Imagination Library has given away nearly 300 million books worldwide since it started. | © Dolly Parton's Imagination Library
Dolly was actually Cyrus' godmother, thanks to her long friendship with Miley's father, Billy Ray Cyrus. In fact, the connection goes deeper than that, as it was discovered that Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus are related as seventh cousins, once removed. | © NBC
You'd think Dolly Parton would be unbeatable in a Dolly Parton lookalike competition. Apparently not. Parton has told the story of entering a lookalike contest in Los Angeles and losing badly because the other contestants had nailed her famous appearance even more than she did. It's perhaps the most Dolly Parton way possible to lose a Dolly Parton contest. | © Nashville Banner
Parton's songwriting output is almost difficult to comprehend. Over the course of her entire career, she wrote what is believed to be more than 3,000 songs. This includes hits like "Jolene", "9 to 5", and "I Will Always Love You". Now, that's seriously impressive. | © Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton is one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world, but there's far more to the country icon than her hit songs and unmistakable appearance. That said, here's a list of 15 facts you may not have known about the one-of-a-kind superstar.
