The Japan Times - United States of Dolly: how a country queen bridged America's divide

Affording her the sort of honor given to major state figures, President Donald Trump ordered flags across the country to be lowered for a week to mark what he called a "true loss for millions of people."

And Trump spared the legendary singer -- who like him was 80 -- the kinds of barbs he has leveled at other figures including former FBI chief Robert Mueller and director Rob Reiner after their deaths.

Reactions to the death of the "Jolene" star were the same on the other side of the political divide.

"Dolly Parton was a true American icon," said Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival in the 2024 US presidential election, and the first female and Black US vice president.

Worried about its future and often nostalgic for an idealized past, it's fair to say that much of America saw itself in Dolly Parton.

Perhaps it was because the child who grew up in a cabin without running water or electricity in Tennessee, and became a global, successful businesswoman and generous philanthropist, reflected a flattering image back to the world's leading power.

The queen of country music herself never got involved in politics, rising above the fact that the scene has frequently leaned conservative.

Parton repeatedly insisted that her songs said all she had to say.

"Everybody knows I don’t do politics," she told Fox and Friends in 2017.

"My mother was a Democrat and my daddy was a Republican, so I’m a hypocrite," she quipped.

Parton also said she had fans on both side of the aisle "and I don’t want to make any of them mad at me."

- 'All for gals' -

A devout Christian, she also became a supporter of gay rights.

"We are all God's children," she said in an interview with Larry King in 2016.

In that same year, she also declined to say whether she would support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Trump in the presidential election.

Parton told The New York Times that "a woman would do a great job" but added that "I think no matter if it’s Hillary or Donald Trump, we're gonna be plagued with PMS either way -- presidential mood swings!"

During the Covid pandemic, Parton waded into another politically charged area by funding vaccine research and encouraging Americans to get vaccinated. She even sang a parody version of her hit song "Jolene," renamed "Vaccine," while filming a video of her first injection.

But Parton, whose hit "9 to 5" was a feminist anthem, declined to describe herself as such despite shaking up the male dominated country music industry.

"I'm just all for gals," she told The Guardian in 2019.

The result was a moment of almost unheard-of unity for a country split over everything from the Iran war to the culture wars.

While Trump didn't mention it in his Truth Social post, there was widespread praise from both parties for her Imagination Library program, which gave away millions of free books to children.

"She always believed in giving back, especially in her efforts to promote literacy," said Democratic former president Bill Clinton.

Trump's Education Secretary Linda McMahon concurred, saying Dolly Parton "placed millions of books into the hands of young children and helped spark a lifelong love of reading."

The Democrats, however, couldn't resist pointing out that Trump's Republicans had tried to reduce funding for Parton's signature program.

Y.Ishikawa--JT