Reba McEntire had decades of Dolly Parton songs to choose from.
She could have picked one of the giant hits. She could have gone with something instantly recognizable, something built for a television tribute.
Instead, when Reba stepped onto the Emmy stage to honor her longtime friend, she sang “Appalachian Memories.”
That choice said a lot.
The 1983 song is one of Dolly’s deeply personal songs about home. Dolly wrote it from the point of view of her father, Robert Lee Parton, drawing from his experience of leaving Appalachia in search of work farther north.
It is a song about leaving the mountains because you have to, then carrying those mountains with you anyway.
For a tribute to Dolly Parton, that is about as close to the center of her story as a song can get.
And coming from Reba, it carried nearly 50 years of history.
Their Story Started at the Grand Ole Opry
Reba’s first encounter with Dolly came before Reba McEntire was the Reba McEntire Tennessee audiences would come to know.
On Sept. 17, 1977, Reba was making her Grand Ole Opry debut in Nashville.
She was supposed to sing two songs.
Her parents and older sister had driven hundreds of miles from Oklahoma to see the moment. Reba even had trouble getting through the Opry entrance at first because a guard did not find her name on the performer list.
Then came another change.
Opry staff told Reba she would only get one song.
Why?
Dolly Parton had unexpectedly arrived.
The Opry’s own history says Reba’s planned two-song appearance was cut to one song, “Invitation to the Blues,” because Dolly was making a surprise appearance.
Reba has told the story with amusement ever since.
Rather than being upset that one of her songs had disappeared, she was thrilled Dolly was there.
That night gave Reba only a few minutes on the Opry stage.
It also gave her a first meeting with a woman who would remain part of her life for decades.
Dolly Was There When Reba Needed Help
Their connection eventually became much more than two country stars crossing paths backstage.
In March 1991, tragedy hit Reba’s touring family.
A plane carrying members of her band crashed near San Diego shortly after takeoff. Eight members of Reba’s band were killed, along with two crew members. Reba was not aboard the aircraft.
Suddenly, she was grieving while also facing the practical question of how she could possibly rebuild a touring band.
Dolly stepped forward.
Reba later recalled that Dolly offered help from her own musical operation. Biography reports that Dolly made her bandleader, Gary Smith, available to help Reba assemble musicians after the crash.
It was the kind of gesture that rarely makes it onto an awards-show résumé.
But it helps explain why a tribute almost 35 years later felt so personal.
The relationship continued.
Dolly guest-starred on Reba’s sitcom in 2005, playing a rival real estate agent named Dolly Majors in the episode “Reba’s Rules of Real Estate.”
In 2021, the two finally recorded together when Dolly joined Reba on a new version of “Does He Love You.”
Their friendship had stretched from an Opry parking lot story into television, music and decades of private support.
Then Reba Picked “Appalachian Memories”
At the Sept. 14 Emmy Awards, the tribute began with Sally Field, Dolly’s Steel Magnolias co-star.
Then Reba took the stage.
She performed “Appalachian Memories,” backed by musicians as images of Dolly and the Appalachian landscape appeared behind her. Dolly herself had performed the song at the Emmys in 1983.
That made Reba’s choice feel less like a cover and more like a return.
The song appeared on Dolly’s 1983 album Burlap & Satin. Dolly wrote it, and its story draws directly from her family and Appalachian upbringing.
Dolly spent much of her career telling stories about East Tennessee, poverty, family and the complicated pull of leaving home.
“Appalachian Memories” gathers many of those themes into one song.
The story follows Appalachian people leaving home because work is scarce and hoping life will be easier somewhere else.
For Tennessee listeners, that history goes far beyond Dolly’s family.
Generations of Appalachian families left East Tennessee and neighboring mountain communities during periods when steady work was hard to find. Many headed toward industrial cities farther north.
Dolly turned one piece of that experience into music.
Reba brought it back after Dolly was gone.
The Tribute Included Pieces of Dolly, Too
The song was not the only personal part of Reba’s appearance.
Reba also wore jewelry connected directly to Dolly, including a butterfly ring and earrings from Dolly’s collection. People reported that members of Dolly’s family helped make the pieces available for the tribute.
Butterflies had long been closely associated with Dolly’s public image.
Reba’s white stage look also drew inspiration from Dolly’s style. Vogue reported that the clothing referenced a white outfit Dolly wore during a 1983 performance era.
But none of those details carried as much history as the song.
Because Reba did not choose a song merely about Dolly the superstar.
She chose one about Dolly Parton the daughter.
About Lee Parton.
About the mountains.
About people leaving home because they needed work.
And about remembering where they came from.
Forty-Nine Years After the Opry
There is a neat circle to the story.
In 1977, Reba lost one of her two Grand Ole Opry songs because Dolly Parton unexpectedly showed up.
Reba did not complain.
She wanted to meet her.
Forty-nine years later, she was standing on another major stage because Dolly could no longer be there herself.
This time, Reba got the whole song.
When she finished “Appalachian Memories,” she offered a short message to her friend: “I love you, Dolly. So much.”
For Tennessee, that moment was about more than two famous country singers.
One woman from Oklahoma was honoring a woman from the Smoky Mountains who had become one of Tennessee’s most recognizable voices.
And after nearly half a century of friendship, Reba chose the song that went all the way back to Dolly’s family and the place that shaped her.
She could have sung almost anything.
She picked home.
Sources
Grand Ole Opry biography and history of Reba McEntire’s Sept. 17, 1977 Opry debut.
People reporting on Reba McEntire’s Emmy tribute, performance and Dolly Parton jewelry.
Vogue reporting on Reba and Dolly’s friendship and the design of the tribute.
UPI and Los Angeles Times archival reporting on the 1991 plane crash involving members of Reba’s band.
Biography reporting on Dolly Parton’s assistance as Reba rebuilt her band after the crash.
Song-history and recording sources for “Appalachian Memories.
