The torrent of love, grief and heartfelt tributes that followed the news of the unexpected death of Dolly Parton last week recognised that this diminutive star with a heart as big as the Appalachian Mountains where she was born was far more than just another entertainer.
Born into what many consider to be abject poverty, the daughter of a father, Robert Lee Parton, who could not read and the fourth of 12 children brought up in a two-roomed shack, Dolly never considered herself poor.
