Hunker Down with Kes: ‘Hello Again’ Was All She Said…

But she would say it each week with the most genuine smile I have ever witnessed. I couldn’t think of anything to say. She was a rising country music star. I was just hanging around backstage because Mr. Bud Wendell, the manager of the world-famous Grand Ole Opry, had taken a liking to me.

I could not match that brilliant smile, but she got the best down-home, friendly, Tennessee country folks’ nod I had in return. Every time she spoke.

We were leaning against opposite sides of the doorframe at the very back, center of the stage. I had picked that spot the first week I came to the Opry. It was like a fairy tale for me. I could look over the shoulders of Jim and Jesse, Marty Robbins, Loretta Lynn, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and study the audience so intently tuned in to each song.

They were gathered in church pews, and the stained-glass windows in the back gave a sparkling radiance to the old Ryman Auditorium. It is not called the Mother Church of Country Music without good cause. I kept thinking, “Is this Heaven!”

It was the summer of 1968.

I had taken a job in Nashville working for the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, who happened to own WSM radio…which owned the Grand Ole Opry. I connected the dots the very first day I was there.

And begged for “anything I could do over at the Opry.” They let me greet people on Saturday mornings and give talks on the history of the Ryman, and the Opry, to the tour groups.

When the first show started, my job was finished. Sometimes I would sit with the crowd. But mostly I enjoyed hanging around the folks who were making the show possible.

And thus, I was standing right beside Dolly Rebecca Parton when Porter Wagoner would introduce her to an already applauding audience. She would, almost shyly, give me one last smile as she moved toward center stage.

I have jokingly told people over the years that I knew Dolly Parton before she became Dolly Parton.

The real truth is I didn’t know her at all. We simply spent a few minutes standing in a doorway side by side in that long-ago summer. But you might be amazed by the lingering memories I have of those precious moments.

She wore the same plain green dress every Saturday night for the entire summer. It was long from top to bottom and very modest. Her hair was not rip-roaring blond. And the little makeup she was wearing couldn’t hide her beauty. She was actually very quiet.

Until she got onstage. Then she sang her heart out every night for that Opry crowd. She understood the business and she was good at it…as far back as 1968. We all know the glitz and glitter, movies, loud outfits, big wigs, and sold-out coliseums that came later.

As did the accolades. My goodness, she won every country music award you could win, except male vocalist of the year…multiple times. She angered some in Nashville when she moved on to a broader spectrum of entertainment. But in every interview, she would quickly get to her East Tennessee family and her impoverished, but happy, childhood.

Folks, you can dye your hair, put on fancy clothes, perform on the world’s most highfalutin’ stages. But that doesn’t necessarily define who you are. Good gracious, just look at the list of songs she wrote.

Her talent had talent!

And yet, Dolly never got “too big” for us. Check out the things she did for her family, her hometown, and all of Sevier County (Dollywood created jobs for most everybody). Look into the reading program she instituted there in 1995. It has now grown into a global literacy program.

In some sense, you might say she never left home at all.

You will hear tributes in the days and weeks ahead for Dolly Parton from important people all around the world. And deservedly so. My little words will pale in comparison.

But when I heard that she had passed away, my heart completely stopped. She made every Tennessean on earth proud!

I thought about all the good she accomplished with the talent and means that God had given her. She lived a full and successful life. And her touch and reach will surely continue on.

And, for some reason, my mind went back to the first record I heard her sing on in 1966. She provided harmony vocals for a little-known country artist named Bill Phillips, singing “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” (a song Dolly co-wrote as a teenager with her uncle, Bill Owens). She was not credited on the record. But you ought to hear that beautiful, young, crystal-clear voice in the background. She was something else…from the very beginning!

I will never forget the “five minutes” I had with her during that summer of Saturday nights. I will not forget the plain dress, the nice girl I met, the award-winning smile, or the quietness we shared…right before the uproar as she moved toward the microphone.

Maybe I knew her better than I thought….

Respectfully,

Kes

kesley45@aol.com