Acceptance ran through Dolly Parton's lyrics, Newcastle PhD writer says

A man who spent five years studying Dolly Parton's lyrics for his PhD says acceptance ran through her music.

James Barker, 34, wrote his thesis at Newcastle University exploring LGBTQ+ inclusion in the country music industry, and said Parton created a "space where a lot of LGBTQIA+ listeners can hear themselves".

Tributes have been pouring in for the country music icon who died on Tuesday aged 80, including from former BBC Radio Tees presenter Stan Laundon who said she was a "bundle of fun".

Cumbrian superfan Joe Skelly, who ran her official UK fan club for many years, said she was "very, very remarkable" and planned to create a music room in his house for his hundreds of pieces of memorabilia.

Studying over the Covid-19 pandemic, Barker started each day listening to a new Dolly Parton song.

The title of his PhD took a line from her song Family: "Some are are preachers, some are gay, some are addicts, drunks and strays and not a one is turned away."

He said: "You have the explicit message of acceptance in a country song in the early 1990s.

"There's a caricature of Dolly, but the kindness she has, it's really quite genuine and deep-rooted when you listen to the songs.

"Country is an identity that's very, kind of, gatekept.

"But she created this space where a lot of LGBTQIA+ listeners can hear themselves."

Skelly, 57, from Seaton near Workington, met Parton on several occasions.

"Her gaze would be on you the whole time while you were making the point or discussing whatever subject you were talking about.

"Royalty could have walked in the room, she wouldn't have taken her gaze and her attention off you until you'd finished."

He is in the process of converting his attic into a music room dedicated to Dolly.

"I have every book ever written, I have every record ever pressed, I have every CD ever made," Skelly said.

"I have about 950 to 1,000 pieces of just physical music memorabilia.

"I'll be able to get everything out and put it in one place where I can just go and reflect."

Stan Laundon previously presented a country music show on BBC Radio Tees and managed to meet and interview Dolly Parton.

"She was a bundle of fun," Laundon said.

"A friend of mine who was with me took a photo with me and Dolly together, and he was so excited the camera was shaking and the photograph was out of focus."

He recalls asking her for an autograph but because she did not have any photos on her, she offered to send it to his address.

"Well, a couple of weeks later I got two ten by eight photographs, one signed to me, one signed to my wife."

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