Dolly Parton’s Faith Carried Her Through Life’s Dark Moments: ‘God Is My Best Buddy’
How country icon Dolly Parton turned tragedy into an unshakeable connection with God
Key Takeaways
- Dolly Parton credits her mother and grandfather for instilling her strong Christian faith.
- The tragic loss of her baby brother at age 9 led Dolly to seek deep comfort from God.
- Dolly’s deep faith inspired hit gospel songs, hymn covers, and multiple Grammy Awards.
Throughout her remarkable life, Dolly Parton has taught us about love, joy, laughter, and unforgettable music — but perhaps her most powerful gift to the world has been showing us the strength that comes from unwavering faith.
Growing up in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains, Dolly Parton was the fourth of 12 children in a close-knit Christian family. Dolly relied on her faith to carry her through every day of her life and remained a steadfast inspiration to us all.
“I grew up in a family that believed in God. My mother was very spiritual and my grandpa was a preacher,” Dolly once said. “It’s just very important because I never try to cram religion down anybody’s throat. I just am who I am and I just hope that if somebody sees something good in me, I want God to have the credit.”
Here, we’re sharing Dolly’s heartfelt remarks about faith from her interview with Woman’s World’s sister magazine, Simple Grace, and how she’s kept her faith as an unshakeable pillar of strength.
Why Dolly Parton turned to God
When Dolly was 9, she experienced one of the most painful times in her life when her baby brother, Larry, died when he was just four days old. “Losing my baby brother was my first encounter with death and the deepest hurt I’ve ever known,” Dolly told Simple Grace. “It was my first true feeling of loss and of questioning God. I remember asking, ‘God, why are you doing this?’” This was the first time Dolly encountered such heartache that caused her to run towards God.
“It’s a hard lesson, because we love our families and our babies and our pets, and you can’t lose anything that you love with all your being and it not break your heart,” Dolly said. “Bad things happen, loss happens, but I don’t think God causes them to happen. I think He’s there to comfort us and help us through it.”
Ever since that heartbreaking loss, Dolly has found that leaning on God in times of suffering and trusting Him even when we don’t understand helps us find the courage to love fearlessly and opens our hearts to love even more deeply. “You never know how God works,” she said with a smile. “You just have to have faith and know that it’s going to be alright.”
How Dolly discovered God as her ‘best buddy’
In her 1994 autobiography, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, Dolly described praying in an abandoned church as a young woman. She wrote, “One day as I prayed in earnest, I broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God.”
She went on to say that she rediscovered God not as someone intimidating, but as someone she could speak with personally at any time of the day. It was at this moment that her relationship with God shifted and deepened.
“God is my best buddy,” Dolly told Simple Grace with a burst of joy-filled laughter. “I grew up in a faith-based family. I’ve always loved Him. Every day I thank God for letting me see another day.”
One of the biggest influences on Dolly’s faith was her mother, Avie Lee, who taught her the value of falling on her knees. Dolly recalls: “Mama would say to trust God and pray when you didn’t know what to do.”
The faith-filled songs Dolly Parton has written
Dolly was known for her masterful songwriting and storytelling, and the music she gave to the world will live on for generations to come. She often used songwriting as a way to express her faith and trust in God, weaving her beliefs as a recurring thread throughout her music.
She released her first gospel album, The Golden Streets of Glory in 1971, in which she wrote the title track about what Heaven might be like: “Hallelujah, I just hope my feet are clean enough / to walk upon the golden streets of glory.”
Her 1971 hit “Coat of Many Colors” relates her childhood in poverty and the biblical account of Joseph. Another early original song, “Letter to Heaven,” takes the form of a child turning to God after losing her mother. Sacred music has continued to appear throughout her career, including a rendition of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” on her 1994 album Heartsongs: Live from Home. Her 1999 collection Precious Memories is devoted to well-known hymns, among them “In the Garden,” “Amazing Grace” and “Power in the Blood.”
Dolly’s faith-filled music has earned widespread recognition. Of her 11 Grammy awards, two were for powerful collaborations with Christian artists: “There Was Jesus” with Zach Williams and “God Only Knows” with For King and Country.
In 2004, “Stand by the River,” Dolly’s duet with gospel artist Dottie Rambo, was nominated for the Gospel Music Association’s Dove Award for Best Recorded Country Song. She was nominated for the same award the following year for “When I Get Where I’m Going,” a duet with country singer Brad Paisley, and in 2021, she and Zach Williams also won Song of the Year at the K-Love Fan Awards for “There Was Jesus.”
Living out her faith through kindness
Underneath the wigs, the makeup, and the rhinestones, Dolly has lived her life in a way that allows others to see the good she does for the world and she gives God the credit for it. Her message was never about perfection or hitting all the right marks, but rather about showing up with love, leaning on God when times get tough, and trusting that even in our darkest moments, we’re never alone. As Dolly reminds us with her trademark warmth: “You just have to have faith and know that it’s going to be alright.”
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