Did Dolly Parton get her start in Knoxville?
Knoxville played an important role in Dolly Parton’s early career. Beginning at age 10, she traveled from Sevier County to Knoxville to perform on WIVK radio and later appeared on Cas Walker’s television program on WBIR. Today, visitors can see a historical marker near the former WIVK studio on North Gay Street, along with several other Dolly-related landmarks around Knoxville.
Long before Nashville, Dollywood or international stardom, Knoxville gave a young Dolly Parton some of her earliest opportunities to perform for a public audience, on radio and television.
From a Tennessee Mountain Home to Knoxville
Of course, Dolly was proud of “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” the name of one of her most popular songs and a reference to the cabin in the countryside well up in the hills east of Pigeon Forge and Dollywood. An area of twisty, narrow country roads, Locust Ridge is where she grew up in the 1950s and early ’60s.
It might have seemed a world away from Knoxville, which at that time was a city of about 120,000, roughly 40 miles northwest of her home. It was a city with skyscrapers, a big university and a symphony orchestra.
It also had several TV and radio stations.
And those were the main reasons the Partons and Owenses were interested in Knoxville.
Dolly Parton’s Musical Family
Her family was musical. In particular, her mother’s family, the Owenses, were proud of their Welsh heritage. For centuries, singing was central to Welsh culture, and that was true even with the Welsh immigrants who settled in Knoxville, mainly in the neighborhood known as Mechanicsville, where in the 1880s and ’90s they hosted large musical festivals called Eisteddfods.
We don’t know whether Dolly’s ancestors were ever standouts at those festivals, but the Owens family did love to sing.
Bill Owens was her mother’s little brother, in his 20s when Dolly was growing up. He taught his niece how to play guitar while developing a little bit of a reputation of his own playing “rock ’n’ roll guitar.”
He got to know Knoxville country-music impresario Cas Walker, a grocer and politician who was also from Sevier County. Sometimes going by the name “Billy the Kid,” Owens performed on the radio in Knoxville and in small South Knoxville clubs when rock ’n’ roll was just gaining a purchase on youth culture here, as it was everywhere.
Dolly Parton’s First Knoxville Radio Performances
Thanks to Uncle Bill, his connections and his car, Dolly Parton was on the Knoxville airwaves by the time she was 10 years old.
Over the next eight years or so, she became a regular on country-music radio station WIVK.
Knoxville’s first single-format radio station, WIVK was something different. Most stations, including WNOX, whose country-music shows had become legendary, still had crowded schedules featuring all kinds of pop music, radio dramas, news features and more. WIVK was all “hillbilly.” Its studio, though, was in a decidedly urban place: the second floor of an old brick building at 319 North Gay Street, right across the street from the Greek-run Regas Restaurant, perhaps the city’s most posh eatery of that era.
The actual location is a yellow early-20th-century brick building at 319 North Gay. Today, a historical marker along North Gay Street commemorates Dolly’s start there. It notes that she began her broadcasting career nearby in 1956, when she was just 10 years old.
She remembered that early experience as a dramatic turning point in her life. After hearing the audience’s enthusiastic reaction, Dolly later wrote that it was the moment she “fell in love with the public.”
She was a juvenile wonder and developed a fan base. Referring to a Cas Walker show, the Greeneville Sun referred to her in June 1957 as “the 10-year-old singing sensation.” Of course, she was actually 11 by then.
Dolly Parton on Knoxville Television
Uncle Bill drove her into town for every performance and then drove her back home, though she sometimes stayed with Knoxville relatives.
She was occasionally on television, too, on Cas Walker’s early-morning variety show, “The Farm and Home Hour,” on WBIR-TV.
That happened in the studios on Hutchison Avenue in North Knoxville off Broadway, where WBIR is still located today. Subject to some architectural makeovers, the modern-looking building still contains the skeleton of the old one, and the walls of the studio where young Dolly played decades ago are deep within the building’s core.
It was not until 1962 that she got her picture in a Knoxville paper. The Knoxville Journal remarked on the 16-year-old Sevier County High School student who already had a five-year record contract.
It was important to Dolly and her family for her to finish Sevier County High School.
It was not until two years later, at age 18, that she accepted Cas Walker’s offer of a ride to Nashville. There, in the capital still growing its reputation as “Music City,” Dolly first stood out not for her face or her figure, but for her songwriting.
But she wanted to perform, too, and before too long she was doing that.
Dolly Returns to Perform in Knoxville
She returned to Knoxville in September 1966 to do what may have been her first local advertised show outside of a broadcasting studio, at the old Oak Grove, one of a few nightclubs on Asheville Highway that became known for hosting country music.
The following night, she was with a large country-music “Shindig” at downtown’s Civic Coliseum, as a support act for the better-known Johnny Cash and his girlfriend June Carter.
It was the first of several such group shows, but by 1974 she was a solo act.
Unlike most entertainers who peak early in their careers and then drift into obscurity, Dolly Parton was never forgotten.
The singer-songwriter was a respected Hollywood actress in her early 30s and wasn’t even 40 before she transformed an existing theme park near her family home into Dollywood.
After that, she probably performed less in Knoxville than she did in other cities, mainly because she chose to support Dollywood, where she performed several times each year when she was in the area.
But Knoxville still offered some interesting challenges.
Dolly Parton at the University of Tennessee and Neyland Stadium
Dolly also developed a lasting connection with the University of Tennessee.
In 2009, she delivered UT Knoxville’s commencement address and received an honorary doctorate of humane and musical letters. She later brought tours to the university’s arena in 2011 and 2014.
Then came one of her largest Knoxville audiences.
On November 18, 2023, as the Tennessee Volunteers faced Georgia, Dolly appeared at Neyland Stadium and sang “Rocky Top” before a sold-out crowd. The song wasn’t hers—her fellow Sevier County songwriters Felice and Boudleaux Bryant wrote it. If it wasn’t the best show of her career, it may have been one of her biggest in terms of a live, in-person audience.
Knoxville’s Love for Dolly
Meanwhile, Knoxville remembered her in multiple ways, including through local female impersonators throughout much of her career, culminating in a former nightclub act called “Night of 1,000 Dollys” about 20 years ago.
More recently, the Old City has hosted Rhinestone Fest, a family-friendly celebration of the musicians, artists and “do-gooders” Dolly inspired. Held annually the first weekend of June, the event includes music, art, costumes, a Dolly-themed market and plenty of rhinestones—just around the corner from where she got her start in broadcasting.
Find the Dolly Parton Mural in Downtown Knoxville
That famously vivid giant portrait of Dolly at the Wall Avenue end of Strong Alley first appeared in 2019 and has stopped pedestrians in their tracks ever since.
Originally the work of San Antonio muralist Colton Valentine, it was vandalized in 2020. East Tennessee professional muralist Megan Lingerfelt, working with Dogwood Arts, restored the mural, which has become almost a downtown destination unto itself.
Strong Alley—sometimes called Graffiti Alley—runs between Gay Street and Market Square, making the Dolly mural an easy stop while exploring downtown Knoxville.
Dolly Parton at the Historic Bijou Theatre
Her own memories conflicted about some things, but Dolly once claimed she had performed on the stage at the historic Bijou Theatre, Knoxville’s intimate 1909 vaudeville house known for its acoustics, perhaps for a radio-station promotion.
She was definitely on that stage in 2024. From May 28–30, Dolly and members of her family gathered at the Bijou for a series of recorded performances connected to Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables and its related documentary project. The Bijou’s own concert archive lists the three nights of Smoky Mountain DNA filming. The album, released later that year, celebrated both sides of Dolly’s family: the Partons and the Owenses. It would ultimately become her final studio album before her death in August 2026.
Seemingly unlimited, she was 80 when she announced a new partnership, creating Knoxville’s Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital, on Clinch Avenue just west of downtown.
She was a phenomenon unlike any other.
Where to Find Dolly Parton Connections in Knoxville Today
For Dolly fans visiting Knoxville, several pieces of that story can still be experienced in person.
Dolly Parton Mural in Strong Alley
Head to Strong Alley between Gay Street and Market Square for one of downtown Knoxville’s most photographed pieces of public art. Colton Valentine painted the original Dolly portrait in 2019, and local artist Megan Lingerfelt restored it in 2020.
Dolly Parton Historical Marker on North Gay Street
Look for the marker commemorating Dolly’s early broadcasting career near 319 North Gay Street, where the WIVK studios were located when 10-year-old Dolly began performing on Knoxville radio in 1956.
Bijou Theatre
Visitors can see the historic downtown theater where Dolly and members of her family recorded performances for the Smoky Mountain DNA project in May 2024.
University of Tennessee and Neyland Stadium
Dolly received an honorary doctorate from UT in 2009, performed at the university’s arena and famously sang “Rocky Top” inside Neyland Stadium in 2023.
Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital
Formerly East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, the Knoxville pediatric hospital officially took Dolly’s name in 2026 as part of a major partnership celebrating their shared commitment to East Tennessee children and families.
Shellene at Ijams Nature Center
This one is a wink rather than an official Dolly connection, but it’s too perfect to leave out. Shellene is a female common snapping turtle and one of the animal ambassadors at Ijams Nature Center. Visitors can also explore more than 300 acres of trails, forests and outdoor experiences while they’re there.
Dolly the Python at Zoo Knoxville
And yes, Knoxville has a Dolly of the reptilian variety. At Zoo Knoxville’s Wee Play Adventure, visitors can meet Dolly, an 18-foot reticulated python, along with other reptiles. The experience is included with zoo admission.
Rhinestone Fest in the Old City
Plan ahead for the first weekend of June, when Knoxville’s Old City hosts its annual Rhinestone Fest celebrating Dolly with live music, art, costumes, handmade goods and plenty of sparkle.
We Will Always Love You, Dolly!
