The Brief
- Country music legend Dolly Parton has died at 80, leaving behind a career that stretched across music, movies, business and philanthropy.
- Parton had deep ties to Georgia, from marrying Carl Dean in Ringgold to filming major projects in Atlanta.
- FOX 5 Atlanta’s Paul Milliken interviewed Parton multiple times and remembers her warmth, humor and the way she treated everyone around her.
ATLANTA – Dolly Parton may forever be identified with the mountains of East Tennessee, but the country music icon who died Tuesday at 80 also left a lasting mark on Georgia — both personally and professionally.
She married the love of her life in Ringgold. She filmed movies and television projects in metro Atlanta. She returned to the city for interviews and promotional appearances. And over the years, FOX 5 Atlanta entertainment correspondent Paul Milliken got to know the woman behind the rhinestones during a series of interviews stretching across several years.
“She loved Georgia. She loved the South,” Milliken said while reflecting on her death Tuesday.…