Dolly Parton Superfans Live in a Shrine Dedicated to Country Music Legend
When Dolly Parton turns 71 years old on Jan. 19, longtime fans Patric Parkey and Harrell Gabeheart will be celebrating with Dolly … kind of.
The two Dolly superfans live in a home that’s best described as a shrine to the country legend. Her face looks down at you from the walls and ceilings, and the entire three-story house is filled with Dolly memorabilia, from pictures and posters…
…to cardboard cutouts.
They have framed album covers and mannequins wearing costumes that Dolly wore…
They even have a bed that she slept in at her old apartment at Dollywood. They bid on it at an auction, and it’s probably their rarest item.
Patric and Harrell say they’ve been told that theirs is the largest private collection of Dolly Parton memorabilia in the world. They say it’s been appraised at $250,000 to $300,000, although neither Patric nor Harrell is entirely sure how much they’ve spent on it over the years. They do emphasize that they’ve never borrowed to buy items and always paid cash.
Patric says that he’s been a lifelong fan of Dolly’s, beginning when he was 5 years old, watching her on Porter Wagoner’s television show. Harrell, on the other hand, says he never really cared for country music when he was younger.
“I always thought it was boring and depressing,” he says.
But then he met Patric, and all that began to change. At the time, Patric wasn’t a collector, but after the two Dolly fans heard about a charity auction featuring some of the singer’s old costumes, they knew that they had to go.
That was in 1999, and in the nearly two decades since, the pair has accumulated 50 different costumes, all displayed on custom-altered mannequins with Dolly-like dimensions and official Dolly wigs. There’s a wide variety, from a rhinestone-studded gown that weighs nearly 50 pounds to a Mae West-themed outfit that she wore on one of her variety shows.
In 2010, the pair relocated to Pigeon Forge, Tenn. from Euless, Texas. They’re now a short drive from Dollywood and closer to where Dolly grew up.
Over the years, Harrell says, they’ve heard from naysayers. “We’ve been called Dolly hoarders,” he says. “And, you know, we’ve been called hoarders in general, I mean, just because of what you collect. But is somebody that collects art a hoarder?”
Harrell, 57, works a full-time job in the dairy department at a grocery store, while Patric, 59, is retired from his job as a print shop manager. For him, maintaining the collection has become a full-time job. He spends his days dusting, rearranging, and, as he puts it, “getting overwhelmed.”
And while their Dolly obsession takes a lot of work, Patric says, the collection inspires him to be his best and to ask himself, “What would Dolly do?” as he looks at the costumes. For both of these fans, Dolly Parton is an inspiration.
“She always says that there’s a heart beneath all the boobs and the hair and the makeup,” Patric says. “There is. If you actually listen to Dolly’s music, she has a message in her music.”
“She’s always smiling,” says Harrell. “You never see her with a frown on her face.”
Their collection currently sits in their home, though the two have considered moving it to a museum, if only to free up space for more Dolly memorabilia.
“You never have enough,” says Harrell. “I mean, you never have enough food, you never have enough this or that. So, I mean, why would you have enough Dolly?”
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