Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton had 12 children, including country music legend Dolly Parton Julie Tremaine is a contributing writer at PEOPLE. She has been at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has ...

The Parton family, raised by Robert and Avie Lee Parton, grew up in the Appalachia region of Tennessee, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Over the years, Dolly Parton hasn't shied away ...

Her parents, Robert Lee Parton, a tobacco farmer, and Avie Lee Owens, instilled in her a deep appreciation for music and storytelling. The family lived in a one-room cabin in the Great Smoky ...

to Robert Lee Parton, an illiterate sharecropper and farmer, and Avie Lee Owens Parton. “I guess my mama knew I was going to want to be a star,” Dolly later said about her mother’s choice ...