Back in 1994ish, when I was working at HarperCollins, I became Dolly Parton’s editor and spent almost a year working with her on her first memoir. I didn’t know what to expect—I’d worked with a lot of celebrities (the bigger the lovelier, generally speaking), and the fact that I’d been a fan of hers since that first night in the early 70s when I saw her with Emmylou and Linda Ronstadt on The Midnight Special and could actually see and feel what harmony is, well, that made things a little complicated. But work is work, and she was extraordinary: incredibly wise and extremely kind, bawdy, funny, very tough, and grateful that a little 30 year old editorial pisher like me was going to help her tell her story. And more than anything else, I learned that she is profoundly devoted to equality and human rights in a way that one can only describe as biblical. It’s who she is; nothing is for show.

So whatever is going on, she and her family are in my heart. ❤️