Country music icon Dolly Parton is being remembered around the world, and in Hawai‘i. She died Tuesday at the age of 80.
Parton had a decades-long connection to the islands — from helping children read to performing with some of Hawaiʻi's prominent entertainers.
Melveen Leed was one of those Hawai‘i musicians who got to know Dolly Parton personally. The two performed “Paniolo Country” together while filming Parton’s television special in 1988 at Kualoa Ranch on O‘ahu.
“She was very friendly,” Leed said. “ She just gets right into any kind of conversation.”
But Leed and Parton knew each other even before that, when they did Hawai‘i Calls, a radio program recorded at the Kahala Hotel, formerly known as the Kahala Hilton, in the 1970s.
Leed remembers Parton for her kindness and honesty.
In between takes of “Paniolo Country,” Leed said that they had one thing in common.
“We have unfiltered mouths. Oh gosh, we say what we feel,” she said.
Parton also performed on her 1988 television special with Native Hawaiian musician Palani Vaughan when the two sang a duet of “Ipo Lei Manu” while blending "Unchained Melody.” The country icon also sang “How Great Thou Art” at Waimea Valley with the Honolulu Boy Choir.
Parton’s connection to Hawai‘i went beyond television appearances. She owned a home in Portlock on Oʻahu and briefly had a restaurant in Hawai‘i Kai called Dockside Plantation. She also brought her philanthropy to the islands. Her Imagination Library program provides one free book a month to keiki under the age of 5 in certain parts of Hawaiʻi.
Nainoa Mau is the executive director of the Friends of the Library in Hawai‘i, the nonprofit that runs the program locally.
Despite Parton’s passing, Mau said The Dollywood Foundation informed him this week that the program will continue.
“This program was not meant to last her lifetime, but it was meant to last the lifetimes of the recipients,” he said. “The children who are receiving the books, and that this is part of her legacy.”
After the 2023 Maui wildfires, Parton recorded a new version of “My Hawai‘i.” The proceeds went to the Maui United Way’s Maui Fire Disaster relief fund.
To Leed, Parton wasn’t just any superstar.
“She's a very kind, kind person,” she said. “She's very giving and very and she does and she talks to anybody, and she's just open with her personality and you know she's a positive thinking type of person.”
