Opinion: Dolly Parton was underestimated for decades. That became one of her greatest strengths

When I interviewed Dolly Parton in 2015, the woman famous for her relentless optimism surprised me by talking candidly about a period when she had struggled with depression.

“I was having some personal problems and beginning to feel a little guilty about my success,” the trailblazing singer-songwriter told me during a conversation at her beloved Dollywood Theme Park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Parton, who died Aug. 25 at age 80, also reflected on the difficult decisions that shaped her career.

I had asked the Country music icon about the period in her life in the 1980’s when she was experiencing personal health and professional challenges after reportedly being diagnosed with endometriosis and undergoing a partial hysterectomy.

“I was having some personal problems and just beginning to kind of feel a little guilty about my success,” she said. “I thought OK – enough is enough. Get off your fat ass and do something about it, cos nobody’s happy all the time. I always make a joke now: people say ‘Oh you’re always seem to be so happy all the time,’ I say, ‘No I’m not happy all the time, that’s Botox!”

In my CNBC Meets interview, she told me how she was laughed at in her graduating class in high school when she told them she was going to Nashville to become a star.

“That hurt my feelings,” she said, adding, “They’re not laughing now.”

From the age of ten, Dolly sang on local television and radio and made her Grand Ole Opry debut aged 13.

In 1967, her quest for stardom led her to join country music star Porter Wagoner on his popular weekly television show, which gained her national recognition.

Though hugely successful together, Dolly described her time with Porter as a “love-hate relationship,” and seven years later she knew she had to leave to follow her dream and establish a career of her own. The split from Porter became difficult.

That experience also inspired her to write one of her most successful songs.

“I wrote the song “I Will Always Love You” about that — when I was trying to leave and he was pitching such a fit, and I thought well, you know, do what you do best, go write a song,” she told me.

The song became a hit for Dolly herself and was later a global phenomenon when Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 box office hit, “The Bodyguard.”

But by then, Dolly had already protected her most important business asset — her publishing rights.

Dollywood first opened in 1986. Forty years later, the theme park is Tennessee’s most visited ticketed attraction and has an estimated direct annual economic impact of $1.8 billion in the region.

“I was born in a one-room cabin, we didn’t have anything fancy in it except our dreams and our plans and the love of a good mama and a good daddy,” she said.

“I thought if I DO make it, I want to come back home, do something special in this area for the people. we’ve really provided thousands and thousands of jobs through the years and that makes me feel proud and I think Little Dolly would be proud of that – and my Mom and Dad too.”

I was one of those visitors experiencing the magic of the Dolly effect and just before my interview, I witnessed the thousands of adoring fans waiting to just catch a glimpse of her annual parade through Dollywood in an open top carriage.

The one person who never wanted to be seen with Dolly in public, astonishingly, was her husband of 59 years, her childhood sweetheart Carl Dean.

“He’s kind of a homebody, he didn’t want to go out there doing all that. No, even when he does come out, he’s not going to be seen.  As a matter of fact, here at Dollywood, he won’t come here with me, not the times I come. He’ll come up and he’ll come to the park and most times nobody even knows he’s been here.”