OK Solberg: 00:00

I want again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, weekends getting close. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottle of water. Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:09

Spring wheat $6.01, 550lb steer calf $5 to $5.30 a pound. That's a wide range dependent on quality, but that is accurate. And a 100lb fat lamb in Billings $3 and a nickel. But guys, there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:31

And now a story about a little girl from the mountains. I like stories, and I like the mountains. A story about a little girl from the mountains who carried a big voice into a very big world. Her name, well, it's Dolly Parton. She was born in the hills of Tennessee in a one room cabin, one of 12 children.

OK Solberg: 00:57

Listen, guys. No electricity, no running water, just faith, family, and music. Her mother sang old ballads. Her grandfather preached. And somewhere in that small cabin, a young girl found something that couldn't be contained by walls or by poverty, a voice.

OK Solberg: 01:23

By the age of 10, Dolly was already performing on local radio and television in Knoxville, Tennessee, not dreaming of stardom, but already working towards it.

OK Solberg: 01:36

Then came the moment, the day she graduated high school, she didn't stay home. She didn't wait. She went straight to Nashville, Tennessee because that's where songs go when they want to be heard. Well, at first success didn't come as a singer, but as a songwriter. She wrote hits for others.

OK Solberg: 02:00

She learned the business. She waited. And then finally, she was seen. Porter Wagner invited her to join his television show in 1967. Week after week, America saw her, America heard her and slowly, unmistakably remembered her.

OK Solberg: 02:22

But Dolly wasn't meant to stay in the background. She stepped out, and when she did, the songs followed. Jolene, a haunting plea wrapped in melody, Code Of Many Colors, a childhood story turned into something timeless.

OK Solberg: 02:40

And a good time to insert our bible verse from Genesis 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors. Again, Genesis 37 verse 3. And who is Israel, the man? Why? That's Jacob. God changed his name to Israel, and he gave Joseph a coat of many colors.

OK Solberg: 03:13

Now back to Dolly. Now, Dolly, here comes a song that would cross every boundary, every genre, every generation. I Will Always Love You, a farewell song written when she chose to leave Porter Wagner's show, not in anger, but in gratitude, a goodbye that would become one of the most recorded and recognized songs in history.

OK Solberg: 03:40

Now here's where the story deepens. Dolly Parton did didn't just sing about poverty. She lived it. She didn't just write about family. She came from one, a large one. And she didn't just arrive in Nashville with talent. She brought discipline, persistence, and a clear understanding of who she was and who she wasn't going to be.

OK Solberg: 04:07

She built her career carefully, writing her own songs, keeping control of her own publishing, making decisions that would give her not just fame but ownership, and the world responded.

OK Solberg: 04:21

And not just country audiences, everyone, from mountain ballads to pop charts, from television to film, her voice carried further than that little cabin could ever have imagined. The girl who took what she had and turned it into something the world could not ignore.

OK Solberg: 04:43

Because sometimes the biggest voices come from the smallest places, And you gotta know that Dolly is still alive and well. She was born in 1946. She had 25 singles that reached #1. Dolly Parton has sold more than 100,000,000 records.

OK Solberg: 05:06

What about that then? Weekends coming. Go out and enjoy. So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.