How Dolly Parton’s Legacy Continues to Improve the Community

Published: March 19, 2025

(Photo by Leon Bennett/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

How Dolly Parton’s Legacy Continues to Improve the Community

By Movieguide® Contributor

Dolly Parton attended her theme park’s 40th opening day, making her first public appearance since the death of her husband, Dean.

“I just wanted you to know that of course, I will always love him,” Parton said about her husband, while noting he would have wanted her to attend the park’s opening day. “I will miss him, and of course, I will always love you.”

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986 with hopes that the attraction would bring thousands of tourists to the Smokey Mountains, both to help the visitors enjoy the natural beauty while also benefiting the nearby communities. Forty years later, this has certainly been the case and has helped the Great Smoky Mountains National Park become the most visited national park in America.

“The Smokies — and the wonderful people who work here — are what make Dollywood so different than many of the other theme parks around the world,” Parton told PEOPLE in January 2024. “We’re right on the font porch of the most-visited national park in the country, so we take what God gave us and use it to dream up the big dreams we want our guests to experience while they are here riding rides and making memories.”

In 2023, the park underwent a major expansion when Parton opened a large cabin-style resort, providing guests with stunning views of the Smoky Mountains while giving families with a fun place to hang out.

“I’m just big on family. It’s something for everybody to do…it’s just really a wonderful spot to refresh and be entertained,” Parton told Knox News. “I want [guests] to feel like they’ve been appreciated and that they’re been pampered and spoiled just a little bit and catered to, especially the moms of the house, and the dads, too.”

Forty years after first opening the park’s doors, Parton is incredibly thankful for how big of a success it has become, thanking fans for continuing to come back year after year.

“If they don’t come, then you don’t have a park,” she said. “But if you do everything you can to make people want to come back or to tell other people about it, that’s how you grow a business, so I will always love people for that.”

“It’s the gift that keeps on giving,” she added. “They give to me, I give to them, and that’s the way it’ll be as long as Dollywood lasts.”