There wasn’t much money. But there was plenty of love.
When Dolly was a little girl, she needed a coat. Her mother, Avie Lee, didn’t have the money to buy one. So she took a box of rags and sewed them together, piece by piece.
As she sewed, she told Dolly the Bible story of Joseph and his coat of many colors.
Dolly was so proud of that coat. She couldn’t wait to show it off at school.
But when she got there, the other children laughed at her. They made fun of her patchwork coat and called her poor.
Years later, in 1969, Dolly was riding on Porter Wagoner’s tour bus when the memory came back to her. She wrote the whole song on the back of a dry-cleaning receipt from one of Porter’s suits.
Porter kept that receipt and had it framed. Today it hangs in Dolly’s museum at Dollywood.
“Coat of Many Colors” came out in 1971 and became one of the most beloved songs she ever wrote. The heart of it is one simple line her mama taught her: “One is only poor, only if they choose to be.”
Dolly has said the song teaches “about bullying, about love, about acceptance, about good parents.”
Listen to her sing it, and you can almost see that little girl in her coat of many colors.
Did your mother or grandmother make something special for you by hand? Tell us about it below.
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