1 The Parton Family

Chapter 1 The Parton Family Dolly grew up in a large, poor family in Tennessee. Avie Lee Owens and Robert Lee Parton, Dolly's parents, married in 1939 when Avie Lee was only fifteen and Lee was seventeen. They rented a log cabin far out in the woods. Avie Lee hated it and moved back with

her parents. There, she had her first baby, Willadeene. After a year, Avie Lee and Lee got back together. They moved into a rented shack in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Lee was a hardworking farmer. He grew tobacco, beans, corn, potatoes, and turnips. But he was a sharecropper.

Sharecropping meant that Dolly's dad didn't own the land and had to share about half of the money from his crops with the landowner. It was a hard way to support a family, and soon another baby, David, came along... and then another, Denver. By now, the five Partons had moved to a one

room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in East Tennessee. They didn't have electricity, running water, or an indoor bathroom. One snowy winter night, someone went to get the doctor. Avie Lee's fourth baby was on the way. Doc Thomas rode on horseback to the cabin where Dolly Parton was born on January

19, 1946. The Partons had no money, so they paid the doctor with a bag of cornmeal. That was a good trade. While Dolly was growing up, the Parton family moved several times. Once, they lived so far out in the woods that their nearest neighbors were two miles away! The Partons had no radio, newspapers, or TV. They counted on their neighbors for news and for help in tough times. To go visiting, to church, or to school, they had to cross a river on a rope bridge and walk. When Dolly was four, the Partons bought a farm. It was rundown, but it was theirs. They stayed there until Dolly was ten. Three or four Parton kids slept in one bed with all their clothes on.

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