Introduction: In this article, Gena Philibert-Ortega celebrates Dolly Parton by exploring a mutual love of cooking and recipes. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”

Tuesday, August 25th, brought the sad news that singer and actress Dolly Parton had passed away at age 80. Countless accolades and memories were posted on social network websites as fellow celebrities and fans mourned her loss. Stories about her kindness, good works, and songs were shared as reminders of a well-lived life.

Dolly Parton is well represented in historical newspapers, so any search of her name will result in hundreds of thousands of results about her life and career (My search on GenealogyBank for her name revealed over 300,000 results). Aside from stories about her career, historical newspapers also feature her life, including her family recipes.

Dolly’s Recipes

One of the lengthier articles about her cooking is this 1977 syndicated newspaper article, where Dolly discusses her cooking, “I’m a country cook,” and provides a list of items she cooks including spaghetti (she admits that this dish is not country) to the more country pork chops, corn bread and fried potatoes. She shares that she makes pinto beans with ham hocks or salt pork by soaking the beans overnight in saltwater, then rinsing them several times the next day, and then cooking them all day, sometimes adding onion. She then serves them with corn bread. Aside from describing how she cooks beans she does provide a recipe for the celebrity cookbook column for a banana bread that she calls “Loaf Bread,” which includes bananas, honey and whole wheat flour.

In a newspaper article about Dollywood’s Harvest Celebration (Dolly Parton’s Tennessee theme park), Dolly’s sister shares a simple family recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes. Readers from the South will know this familiar recipe and probably have a similar one used by their own families.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel published a Parton candy recipe in 1994 with a preface that Dolly’s mother made this candy, considered a real treat by her eleven children. Dolly’s sister Willadeane states that their mother served the fudge-like candy between saltine crackers, but the published recipe calls for it to be poured into a pan.

Candy wasn’t the only sweet recipe that the Parton family shared in print.  A 2016 newspaper article about Dolly featured the family’s holiday cookie recipe for Thumbprint Cookies that features a raspberry jam “well.”

Lest you think that the only recipes Dolly shared were for country foods that reminded her of her childhood, one of the recipes I found printed repeatedly was her diet soup recipe titled “T-J Miracle Soup,” which included tomatoes, green peppers, onions, cabbage, celery, and herb seasoning. Apparently eating this soup helped her lose a lot of weight, which then became something that newspaper readers wanted to try.

Cook Like Dolly

Aside from historical newspaper recipes, you can also find Dolly Parton-inspired foods at Dollywood and in the cookbook Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals – A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food, by Dolly and her sister Rachel Parton George.

As the nation mourns her loss, we can smile remembering the joy she brought to countless fans, her charity in providing young readers with books, and what she shared about her family, including their recipes.

Create a free account at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.

Note on the header image: Dolly Parton at “Blue Smoke World Tour” in Knoxville on 28 May 2014. Credit: Kristopher Harris; Wikimedia Commons.