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By Kayla DeKraker
From celebrating 40 years of Dollywood to relying on God as she mourns her husband’s death, Dolly Parton is a remarkable example of prioritizing family and faith.
“We love to entertain families, and we try to really focus on that,” she told Fox News of Dollywood, “even from even in our resorts where we have rooms, but the children have bunk beds and the parents have places to stay.”
Dollywood is located in the Smokey Mountains and features over 50 rides, entertainment, shows and dining experiences.
She continued, “But on the park, we have the best food. We have the best rides for adults and for the children. We have great areas for kids, for teenagers, so the entire family can come to Dollywood and find just about anything you want to do.”
From singing and performing to opening her theme park to launching the “Pirates Voyages Dinner and Show” in Florida, Parton shows no signs of stopping her decades-long career anytime soon.
“I really love what I do, and I’ve always been so thankful I won’t ever retire,” she said. “If I got sick or something or just fell over dead…but I will work for as long as I am able to, and even if I wasn’t physically able to get out and run around, I’d still be writing my songs.”
She joked, “I figure as that old saying ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead.’ But it energizes me. I really feel like I’m doing what I was meant to do.”
Related: Dolly Parton’s Husband Carl Dies at 82
But amid her continued success, Parton is leaning into her faith now more than ever following her husband Carl Dean’s death in March.
“Faith has helped me through it all, because I am a person of faith, even though I lost him on this earthly plane, and I’ll miss him every day,” she said. “Having to learn new patterns, new habits, but knowing that I will see him again and knowing that he’s in God’s arms now and not mine, but he’s still in my heart and in my memories, and I treasure all that.”
Parton shared that on what would’ve been their 59th anniversary — May 30 — she went to the Georgia church where they got married in 1966.
“So, anyway, that’s where I spent my anniversary, our first — my first — our anniversary without him, the first one. So I thought, well, I have got to go back and just take a picture on that — on the same steps at that same church,” she said.
“And then I felt like that he — he was there with me. And I put his wedding ring around my little gold chain and wore it,” she continued. “And I wore my little original wedding rings and just stood there. And it was just so — it was just so sweet, and it made me. It was good for me.”
Parton’s legacy is a reminder that it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
Read Next: Dolly Parton Clings to Faith After Husband’s Death: ‘Going to See Him Again’
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