Parton

IT is only three months since Dolly Parton had to tell the world: ‘I ain’t dead yet!’

And to prove it, she is marking her 80th birthday today in the way she knows best — by belting out a new version of one of her biggest hits.

Billionaire Dolly, who ­happily admits the reason she does not look her age is because of plastic surgery, is using the milestone to raise ­millions to help kids with cancer.

She has re-released her 1977 hit Light Of A Clear Blue Morning, but this time she is accompanied by Queen Latifah and country stars Reba McEntire and Lainey Wilson.

Her chart-topping god-daughter Miley Cyrus also sings with Dolly on the track.

Dolly, who has sold 100million records worldwide, says: “I wrote Light Of A Clear Blue Morning during a season when I was searching for hope.

“And 50 years later that message still feels just as true.

“As I celebrate my 80th birthday, this new version is my way of using what I’ve been blessed with to shine a little light forward, especially by sharing it with some truly incredible women.”

Dolly’s determination to keep going is also incredible.

Just over ten months ago her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, died, aged 82.

And last autumn she was rushed to hospital.

After her sister, Freida, posted she had been up all night praying for Dolly, the star was forced to take to social media to tell the world she was not dead.

Devout Christian Dolly said: “I’m not ready to die yet.

“I don’t think God is through with me. And I ain’t done working.”

‘UNUSUAL MARRIAGE’

The fourth of 12 children, Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in a two-room log cabin in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains on January 19, 1946.

Her “dirt-poor” dad Lee Parton who was a share-cropper — a tenant farmer who gives a part of each crop as rent — paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of corn.

Dolly wrote her first song aged five and, just a day after her 18th birthday, arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, the capital of country music.

That same day she met Carl Dean, 21, while washing her clothes at the Wishy Washy laundromat.

Two years later they wed, shortly before she released her first album.

But Carl stayed under the radar running his Tarmac business while Dolly travelled the world making records, acting and building a ­billion-dollar business, including her Dollywood theme park 30 miles south-east of Knoxville.

It was one of the longest and most unusual marriages in showbiz but Dolly admitted: “I like flirting.

“It’s an open relationship but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that.

“He would shoot me too. At the end of the day, we love each other madly.”

Even so, Dolly wrote one of her most famous songs, Jolene, after a clerk at a local bank started paying Carl too much attention.

As Dolly has gone from rags to riches, she’s never lost touch with her roots.

Millions of fans love how, despite worldwide fame, she keeps her tiny feet firmly on the ground.

And her witty one-liners are now almost as legendary as her songs.

She says: “I never thought I was beautiful.

“I was 5ft 2in when I was 12 and I haven’t grown an inch since.

“I wanted to be pretty more than anything in the world.

“I’m a little-bitty person. It’s just that my boobs look so big hanging on such a little person!”

As she turns 80, Dolly jokes: “I have pretty good skin considering my age, and I think a lot of it is mineral oil and bacon grease.”

“People say, ‘How do you stay looking so young?’. I say, ‘Well, good lighting, good doctors, and good make-up’.”

Despite the death of her beloved Carl and her own health problems, which saw her cancel shows, she remains positive and says: “I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life.

I’ve had heartaches, headaches, toothaches, earaches, and I’ve had a few pains in the ass, but I’ve ­survived to tell about it.

Dolly Parton

“I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain.

“These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world.

“I’ve had heartaches, headaches, toothaches, earaches, and I’ve had a few pains in the ass, but I’ve ­survived to tell about it.”

“When I wake up, I expect things to be good.

“If they’re not, then I set about trying to make them as good as I can ’cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway.

“So why not try to make the most of it?”

“I’ve always tried to never step on anybody to get where I am.

“I’ve had to walk around a few people, jump over a few of ’em now and then.

“But I think you’re a true success when you’ve seen your dreams come true and you can take pride in how you did it and take pride in and respect and appreciate the people that helped you get there.

“Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.”