Atlanta’s queer arts community remembers Dolly Parton’s legacy 

On Thursday night at Mary’s local fans and drag queens gathered to pay tribute to Parton, along with a nod to the late Tim Curry.

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For queer Southerners, Dolly Parton has always represented a particular kind of possibility.

Her quick wit, unrelenting zeal, and certainly, her fondness for flamboyance, offered those from a place where the narrative precedes then, the permission to precede it. 

For Parton Waters, an Atlanta drag artist whose name is itself an homage to Dolly, that possibility was deeply personal.

“I’ve loved Dolly since before I can remember. As a farm kid in Eastern Kentucky, I was awed by her cotton candy hair and larger-than-life presence. She made big dreams seem attainable. In my early 20s, her ideals clicked for me. Her ability to love without judgement while knowing that someone else’s truth doesn’t have to be her truth has been foundational, even spiritual, for me.”

Parton Waters debuted in Atlanta in 2022, and since then, her blonde bouffant has become a familiar sight at drag brunches and events around the city, including the grand opening of Atlanta’s women’s sports bar, Jolene Jolene.

“My kinship with Dolly started years before Parton Waters existed, but the confidence to walk into spaces where I wasn’t invited but wanted to be was inspired by her. For this guy from the sticks, quitting good jobs, getting a PhD, facilitating rooms of academics, and even saying ‘I want to be a drag queen’ all came with real risk of failure and judgement. Dolly didn’t give me her confidence. She gave me her light.”

On Thursday, August 27th, that light took on a communal feeling at Mary’s, the longtime queer bar in East Atlanta Village, where drag performers and attendees gathered to celebrate Parton, who died Tuesday at 80 after a brief battle with cancer.

Host and drag artist Ella Saurus Rex invited patrons to sing along as nine drag performers took to the floor, one by one, with tributes ranging from “Jolene” and “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” to a raucous, full-cast “9 to 5” encore. 

Chatter of the evening was punctuated with mentions of Dollywood and the Imagination Library, Parton’s literacy program that has distributed millions of books to children. One attendee noted that the cash they were handing to the drag performers had come from a bluegrass gig — a small but kismet collision of the musical world Parton came from and the queer Southern world celebrating her.

That affection is rooted in more than nostalgia. Terrence Ng, an organizer and instructor with DanceOut Atlanta, points to Parton’s longstanding support for queer and trans people as a central part of her legacy.

“One of the myriad ways that Dolly was remarkable was in her support of the queer community. She stood with us from the beginning. Considering the climate of today, her consistent support of the trans community over her entire career is especially incredible. From the 90s when tabloids discovered that her personal driver was a trans man and had her complete support, to her collaboration with the 2006 film Trans America, and to her willingness to speak out on our behalf at every opportunity, Dolly showed that queer and trans people were her people, and worthy of respect and love.”

At DanceOut Atlanta, where Ng helps organize weekly country and western dance lessons, Parton’s music has long offered a soundtrack for queer people reclaiming a genre that has not always made them feel welcome.

“The idea that her renown as a pioneering singer, songwriter, and entertainer was superseded only by her genuine and superhuman acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion for her fellow human beings is a reminder in dark times that what truly matters in the end is how you care for others. Dolly was someone who, through her words and her actions, showed the queer community — and all communities — that there was always a place set for them at her table.”

As the clock crept toward midnight at Mary’s, the evening’s drag performers called for one last tribute. In memory of actor Tim Curry, a familiar, crunchy guitar riff began to bellow through the shotgun hall. Blonde wigs and cowboy boots flooded the floor, jumping to the left and stepping to the right to The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s “Time Warp.” 

For two queer icons who knew that true kitsch and camp are found more deeply in earnestness than irony, perhaps there was no better place to land.

Where & when 

Parton Waters performs at SHE-HAW! A Queer Cuntry Party & Line Dancing Nite, with line dancing lessons from DanceOut Atlanta on August 30 at My Sister’s Room, 1104 Crescent Avenue NE

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Lindsay Thomaston is a photographer and culture writer with a background in media and politics. Her work has also appeared in Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, i-D, Dazed, Fashionista and Immersive Atlanta, among others.