three side-by-side photos of dolly parton; purple, blue, yellow and pink circles with question marks surround them; black background

Left to Right: David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images; Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images; Paul Popper/Popperfoto via Getty Images

Test Your Dolly Parton Knowledge

Take our quiz to see how well you know the country music legend

Jayme Deerwester,

AARP

Published November 23, 2022

10 Questions

Known for her over-the-top makeup, voluminous blonde wigs and perky, self-deprecating personality, living legend Dolly Parton, 76, has famously proclaimed that, "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap!" And the country music icon and actress has proven that her heart is as big as her hair; she’s donated millions to multiple charities and medical research over the years. In honor of her recently released greatest-hits collection, Diamonds & Rhinestones, take our quiz to test how well you know this national treasure.

Test Your Dolly Parton Knowledge

[ {
 "question" : "Parton is one of the most famous people born and raised in which state?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Alabama",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "South Carolina",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Texas",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Tennessee",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Parton, born in Sevier County, has given back to her home state of Tennessee in a big way. Her Dollywood theme park is one of the state’s top employers. And her Imagination Library, which sends a free book to eligible children around the world each month, began in her home county. “Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done,” she shared in a letter on the organization’s website. “Inspiring kids to love to read became my mission. In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county, but here we are today with a worldwide program that gives a book a month to well over one million children.”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "What was Dolly Parton’s first-ever acting credit?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "“Steel Magnolias”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“A Smoky Mountain Christmas”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“9 to 5”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "An episode of “Captain Kangaroo”",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "According to IMDB, her first acting credit came in a 1976 episode of the children’s show “Captain Kangaroo.” But her next role was in the hit film “9 to 5,” alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Who has Parton never recorded a song with?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Kenny Rogers",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Leslie Jordan",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Loretta Lynn",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Jack White",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Parton famously dueted with Rogers on 1983’s “Islands in the Stream,” and a decade later she teamed up with Lynn and Tammy Wynette for the album “Honky Tonk Angels.” She even contributed some vocals to an album of Southern gospel hymns put out by Leslie Jordan, the late star of “Will &amp; Grace” also known for his Instagram fame. But while White has covered “Jolene” and Parton has hinted at wanting to collaborate, they haven’t cut a record together just yet. (He did produce an album for Lynn, however.)\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "True or false: Parton almost let Elvis Presley sing “I Will Always Love You” instead of keeping it for herself.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "True",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "False",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "She walked away when Presley’s manager insisted on her signing away 50 percent of the publishing rights to the song. “I wanted to hear Elvis sing it, and it broke my heart — I cried all night,” Parton told “People” magazine in 2021 of the decision to hold on to the copyright. “These are my songs,” she joked. “They're like my children. And I expect them to support me when I'm old!” She made the right call: The royalties from Whitney Houston’s cover alone netted Parton $10 million.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "On which science fiction TV series has Parton guest-starred?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "“The Orville”",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "“Star Trek - Voyager”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“Firefly”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“For All Mankind”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "One of the alien races on “The Orville” is the Moclans, a nearly all-male society who view being born female as a birth defect that must be surgically corrected. When Heveena (played by Rena Owen), the leader of a breakaway sect of female Moclans, visits Capt. Ed Mercer’s ship (played by Seth MacFarlane) she hears the song “9 to 5.” She declares Parton the “voice of our revolution” and quotes “9 to 5” in an important speech to the Planetary Union. Later, in Season 3, when Heveena’s wrestling with an ethical dilemma, Mercer arranges a simulated visit with Parton herself.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "True or false: Parton helped fund COVID-19 vaccine development.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "True",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "False",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Parton has remained close with Naji Abumrad, M.D., the Vanderbilt University Medical Center doctor who treated her after a 2013 car accident. In April 2020, she announced that she had donated $1 million to Vanderbilt to help develop what became the Moderna vaccine. Abumrad personally administered Parton’s vaccine in March 2021, which inspired her to sing a modified version of the song “Jolene” which she named “Vaccine.”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which award has Parton not received?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Kennedy Center Honors",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "Academy Award",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "Grand Ole Opry member",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "Parton has been nominated for an Oscar for best original song twice — in 1981 for “9 to 5” and in 2006 for “Travelin’ Thru” from “Transamerica,” but lost both times. In 2006, she was a Kennedy Center Honors recipient. She’s been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1969. This year, she was inducted into the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame after initially turning down her nomination because she says she didn’t feel worthy. But she reconsidered, and at the Nov. 5 ceremony, she proclaimed, “I’m a rock star now!”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "Which of these Parton songs had the best showing on the Billboard charts?\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "“Jolene”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“Here You Come Again”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“I Will Always Love You”",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 }, {
 "answer" : "“9 to 5”",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "According to Billboard, “9 to 5” and “Islands in the Stream” both spent two weeks at No. 1, but “9 to 5” was on the charts longer overall, by one week.\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "True or false: The director of “Steel Magnolias” told Parton to take acting lessons.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "True",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "False",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "At the film’s premiere, Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine told “Us Weekly” magazine that during a difficult day on the set of “Steel Magnolias,” director Herbert Ross suggested to Parton that she take acting lessons. Field recalled, “You don’t say that to Dolly Parton! Dolly Parton is absolutely the funniest, wittiest and filthiest, and she will cut you to ribbons.”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
 "question" : "True or false: Parton once entered a celebrity drag look-alike contest — and lost.\n",
 "answers" : [ {
 "answer" : "True",
 "correctAnswer" : true
 }, {
 "answer" : "False",
 "correctAnswer" : false
 } ],
 "multiSelect" : false,
 "explanation" : "In 2012, Parton recalled the event for ABC’s “Nightline,” explaining, “They had a bunch of Chers and Dollys that year, so I just over-exaggerated — made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything. All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across, and they just thought I was some little short gay guy. But I got the least applause.”\n",
 "hint" : "",
 "hintLink" : "",
 "questionImgCaption" : "",
 "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

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Jayme Deerwester is an editor and writer with two decades of experience at USA TODAY, where she covered entertainment, travel, personal finance and technology. When not in front of a computer, she can be found rowing, kayaking or playing with her dog.

Test Your Dolly Parton Knowledge

Test Your Dolly Parton Knowledge

Test Your Dolly Parton Knowledge

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