Aundrea Self speaks about Dolly Parton

People across the country and around the world are reacting to the death of entertainment icon Dolly Parton. That includes people here in north Mississippi. Dolly Parton made a couple of visits to our area of the state. The most recent was a pair of sold out shows in Philadelphia to help Marty Stuart Congress of Country Music a couple of years ago.

But back in the early 2000, she came to America as part of the Stars over Mississippi Showcase that helped raise money for the Mary Kirkpatrick Haskell Scholarship Fund, an up and coming young anchor from WCBI named Andrea Self drew the plum assignment of covering the Stars that night and got to meet Dolly and found out she was pretty much just as advertised. waiting to interview Dolly Parton.

Self says, “Waiting to interview Dolly Parton I was obviously very nervous. I mean, you know, we were in a room full of celebrities. But right away, she sort of calm the nerves. She looked at me and she said, over here, and we did the interview. And of course, I asked her for picture. We took a picture and she sort of embraced me. I can remember feeling like she hugged me like we’re old friends.

But I think she just sort of had a way of doing that. If you look at the tributes that have been on social media and on news outlets over the last 24 hours, it was clear the impact that she had on people went far beyond her just being a country music star, being a movie star. Her kindness and the way she gave back to her home state and to her hometown and to people who were marginalized and people who were less fortunate.

I think it resonated with people. And, you know, she was more than just a celebrity to people. I think people really saw her as someone to look up to, someone to to emulate.”

Dolly Parton died yesterday at the age of 80 after what was described as a brief battle with cancer.