Martha Ackmann of Leverett says she has enjoyed the music of Dolly Parton for as long as she can remember.
Ackmann has fond recollections of watching Parton on TV at her grandparents’ house in her youth, she said recently, talking about her fascinating new book “Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton” (St. Martin’s Press, 304 pages, $30).
Ackmann’s family had a weekly routine: watching “The Lawrence Welk Show,” followed by “The Porter Wagoner Show.” For seven years, the blonde, buxom Parton was a staple on the latter program as Wagoner’s “girl singer.”
stardom.
Courtesy of the Country Music Hall Of Fame © and Museum
“There was something about Dolly that fascinated me and also puzzled me,” Ackmann said. “She seemed to be about more than big hair and a curvy figure.”
Ackmann’s specialty as a biographer is women who have influenced American culture. Her first book, “The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight,” followed a group of female pilots who trained as astronauts in the early days of the American space program but were ultimately excluded because of their gender.
She also wrote, “Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone,” a biography about the first female player in baseball’s Negro Leagues. More recently, she wrote about critical moments in the life of poet Emily Dickinson with the book, “These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson.”
After Dickinson, Ackmann turned her attention to Dolly Parton. Ackmann said that some people found this transition unlikely.
I said that I am not one of those people. As a historian, I know that the line between “high” culture and popular culture is often arbitrary. To me, Dickinson and Parton can belong together as creative American women.
I asked about Ackmann’s approach. “I wanted to do a deep dive and situate [Parton] as an important figure in history and in a place you know well, East Tennessee,” she explained, referring to my years in school not far from Parton’s hometown of Sevierville. “I wanted to take Dolly Parton seriously.”
Ackmann used, as she told me, “a lot of shoe leather,” combing through libraries and archives and interviewing as many of the singer’s friends, colleagues and relatives as she could. She was unable to talk to Parton herself or to Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, who died last March after almost six decades of marriage.
Courtesy of Annelle Geddes Tubb
Nevertheless, the book reveals previously unknown details about the couple’s life together and about Dean himself.
“They had such a playful relationship. I think the book offers a pretty full portrait of Carl,” Ackmann noted. “I also respected that there was a limit on what we could know about him. … This is the line that Dolly draws, and as a biographer I respect that.”
The book follows Parton’s life from her birthplace in a crowded, hardscrabble mountain cabin until this past year.
She started singing professionally at a young age. Ackmann told of interviewing subjects who heard Parton on the radio when she was 10 who recalled thinking, “Put that child to bed!”
Courtesy of Steve Buckingham
The book details the performer’s instinctive guidance of her career; the ways in which she has managed to keep her personal life private; her love of family; and her philanthropy, most notably the Imagination Library, which provides books to children across the globe.
It also dwells on a topic Ackmann and I discussed at length, the physical appearance Parton cultivated from an early age, making the most of her blonde hair — later using wigs — and putting on a thick layer of makeup.
“I think Dolly looks one way and is another. She talks about that. Her first hit, from which I got the title of the book, ‘Dumb Blonde,’ announces it,” explained Ackmann.
The song includes the lyrics, “Just because I’m blonde, don’t think I’m dumb. ‘Cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.”
Ackmann stated, “One critic said that dichotomy is her superpower. And Dolly said that looking one way gives her something to work against because people make assumptions. People look at her and see that cartoon of a woman. … I think that’s fascinating.”
I asked the biographer how conscious she thought Parton was of the ways in which her appearance could mislead people.
“Dolly always said that the way she looked, especially in the early years, was a country girl’s idea of glam. She wanted to be pretty in that conventional sense. She found that both tantalizing and fun. It was play in a certain way. And I do think she still enjoys it,” said Ackmann.
“I think the way she presents herself is conscious. I think it is a choice. I think there’s always the question, ‘Is Dolly a feminist?’
“The best definition of feminism that I ever read was from Adrienne Rich: A feminist is a woman who lives a freely chosen life. In that sense, I think Dolly always fits all the boxes, she continued”
Ackmann is an avowed Parton fan. She has seen the singer/songwriter in concert and has read just about everything ever written about her. Nevertheless, researching this book added to the writer’s positive picture of her subject.
“She keeps reinventing herself,” marveled Ackmann, noting that Parton has written more than 3,000 songs in multiple genres and has partnered with younger artists, particularly in recent years.
She told me she had been impressed by “the scope of [Parton’s] influence from country music to philanthropy and most importantly what she represents in terms of decency, of kindness, of compassion, of generosity.”
Ackmann added, “I think people respond to that. She reminds us of our better angels.”
She also said that Parton’s work ethic floored her. “She comes across as light and positive and easy, but she works so hard,” she said.
Ackmann also enthused over the ways in which Parton’s “Tennessee Mountain Home” — where money was short but dreams were encouraged — grounded the singer’s character.
“Any time she has encountered difficulty she goes home. It’s not just the physical home. It’s home in a more profound sense. It’s a set of values.
“You may be flying high in Hollywood, as she was for a time, but you’ve got to know who you are,” concluded Martha Ackmann. Amen.
Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning writer and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.