Watch: How Dolly Parton Handled 'Classless' Barbara Walters During 1977 Interview Has People Talking

It hasn't even been 24 hours since we learned of the passing of the legendary Dolly Parton, and what has been said and written about the 80-year-old dynamo so far by news publications and on social media has been enough to fill the equivalent of the Library of Congress and then some. And there surely will be even more to that in the weeks and months to come.

Everybody has a story to tell about the country music icon, whether it was about meeting her, seeing her in concert, enjoying her movies, how her music got them through tough times, or how her Imagination Library program made such a difference in the lives of their children. No one ever has anything negative to say about Dolly Parton, and if they do, well, let's just say that person's probably got some personal problems.

And speaking of, of all the classic videos being circulated about Parton on social media, one that is getting a lot of attention and feedback is one of an interview she did in 1977 with then-ABC News journalist Barbara Walters, one in which Walters asked some pretty trashy, tacky questions. But the real story is how Dolly Parton handled it - and her.

SEE ALSO: 'Absolute Legend': Tributes Pour in After the Passing of the Irrepressible Dolly Parton

Parton was 31-years-old at the time, was already successful in her own right, and was busy breaking barriers for women in the country music industry. Similarly, Walters was viewed as someone who was opening doors for women in journalism at a time when 2nd Wave "feminism" was on the rise.

So one would think that they might be kindred spirits of a sort, there to help lift each other up rather than tear down.

But that was not how Walters, who was characterized by some who watched the clip as "classless," seemed to view the occasion. Here were some of the questions Parton was asked:

-- "Is there any hanky panky on the bus to pass the hanky panky?"

-- "Dolly, where I come from, would I have called you a hillbilly?"

-- "Dolly, did you look like this when you were a kid? I mean, you didn't have you didn't have the blonde wig, but when you went into school when you were 11, 12, 13. Was it this about you?"

--" My assistant asked me something, and I'm going to blame it on her because I wouldn't have had the nerve otherwise. Is it all you?"

-- "Do you give your measurements?"

-- "You don't have to look like this. You're very beautiful. You don't have to wear the blonde wigs. You don't have to wear the extreme clothes, right?"

-- "But do you ever feel that you're a joke that people make fun of you?"

-- "You don't see [your husband, Carl Dean] very much. You're on the road most of the time. You've said, 'I know that this marriage will always last. This man gives me everything I need.' How do you know?"

-- "Why? I mean, if what you want most is freedom, why have a husband away someplace to see six weeks a year?"

If Dolly Parton was offended by these questions, she didn't show it. But you could tell as the interview went on she got a little more firm in her answers, making it more than clear to Walters that she was very proud of who she was, her upbringing and country roots, was comfortable and confident with her choices, with being in her own skin, with who she chose to associate with and how she chose to conduct her life and career.

Here is one of the answers she gave:

Walters: "When I think of hillbillies, am I thinking of your kind of people" 

Dolly: "The people that grew up where I was were the ones that you would consider the Lil Abner people, Daisy Mae and that sort of thing. They took that kind of thing from people like us. But we are very proud people, people with a lot of class. It was country class, but it was a great deal of class. And most of my people were not that educated, but they are very, very intelligent. Good common sense, horse sense, we called it."

This four-minute clip from the interview (full video here) is worth watching:

@Dolly was only 31 in that Barbara Walters interview and completely unshaken.
She knew where she came from. She wasn’t ashamed. She knew who she was. She knew her talent. Nobody was going to make her feel small.✨
That kind of confidence is timeless.❤️🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/DW18lKcBgT

— Jennifer Le (@jle2015) August 26, 2026

That wasn't just class and grace from Parton; that was supreme confidence, and perhaps the recognition that sometimes other women can be the "sisterhood's" worst enemy.

Though looks were an important part of Parton's image, she knew what mattered more was how you treated people:

I appreciate that Dolly Parton played no part in "dress respectability" and, by her own account, modeled her aesthetic after a town "tramp," who she thought was beautiful. She separated aesthetics from character and understood "classiness" to be about how you treat people.

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) August 26, 2026

Amen.

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