Dolly Parton Revealed the Tragedy That Left Her Unable to Sing

Dolly Parton has been a singer for most of her life, but one childhood tragedy left her unable to sing a note. While Parton was growing up, her mother gave each of the children the responsibility of looking after a younger sibling. Parton excitedly prepared for the arrival of her younger brother, who would be “her baby.” Her mother lost the baby, however, which Parton struggled to accept.

Dolly Parton said a childhood tragedy left her unable to speak or sing

Parton grew up with 11 siblings. Her mother was often pregnant or caring for infants, so she relied on her older children to keep an eye out for the younger ones. Parton would have been in charge of a younger brother, Larry. Tragically, however, he died shortly after his birth.

“She told Daddy that my unborn brother, Larry, would not live. He had been made ‘my baby,’ and she knew it would be harder for me than anyone else,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “Mama went into labor on July 4, and Larry was born on the fifth. The angels that had spared Mama called little Larry to be with them.”

When her father broke the news to the family, Parton said she felt both devastated and furious.

“I guess I was angry at God,” she wrote. “Why was my baby dead? Why did everything that was mine have to die? I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep. For the first time in my life, I couldn’t sing. I wouldn’t leave Larry’s grave. I would take a lantern up on the hill and sit there most of the night talking to him and crying.”

Dolly Parton said she grew to better understand the tragedy

Parton and her family worked to keep Larry’s memory alive.

“Finally I came to some understanding,” she wrote. “We had a picture of little Larry in his coffin. My family has kept it, and we have always considered him a part of the family.”

She said that looking at this picture eventually gave her a different perspective on her brother’s death.

“I came to think of his spirit as something apart from his body, something not bound to that grave that I kept mourning over but set free to live a perfect existence in heaven,” she wrote. “Finally, I got the feeling that Larry wanted me to shut up and let him get some sleep. ‘Get off my grave and get some sleep yourself,’ I thought he was telling me. I took his advice.”

She shared the view of death she had as a child

Parton had several experiences with death while growing up. As a result, she began to understand it in a way that comforted her and brought her singing voice back.

“In my childlike way, I came to understand that death is only frightening to those of us left behind,” she wrote. “I made peace with that idea, and with God, and I went on with my life. I sang again, now with a voice made richer for having known loss.”

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