Dolly’s Poor Upbringing
Parton’s came from a “dirt poor” family, struggling for even the most basic of things at times. When she was six years old, Parton recalls jumping over her fence and landing on a broken mason jar.
The accident left her three little toes on her right foot hanging. As the family couldn’t afford to visit a doctor, her mother “played” doctor and had her father and brothers hold her down.
She said they put cornmeal to absorb the blood, then used kerosene as an antiseptic and with her mother then sewing her toes back on with sewing needles. “But they worked and they healed and I’m still walking on them,” Parton recalled.