The One Thing Dolly Parton Has Said She Regrets — And What It Reveals About Her
2026/06/21
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The One Thing Dolly Parton Has Said She Regrets — And What It Reveals About Her
Dolly Parton is not a person who publicly traffics in regret. Her general orientation toward her own life is one of gratitude — she speaks about her past as a series of things that shaped her rather than things that happened to her, and she extends this framework even to the hardest parts.
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But there is one thing she has come back to, in various interviews over decades, with something that functions like regret even if she doesn't use the word.
She has never gone to college.
She graduated high school in 1964. On graduation day — the day after, by her account — she packed her bags and left for Nashville.
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