In my country station dj days I got to to play plenty of Dolly Parton songs.

And I still remember her on the Porter Wagoner Show, until she got so popular it was time for her to go.

Wagoner didn’t want her to leave. As an aside, a colleague saw a Porter Wagoner show in those old days, not with Dolly, and said he was not a role model. He would be singing a song about being faithful while during a break he would point out some female in the audience to his roadie that he would like to see backstage.

Porter and Dolly never had an affair, and she must have been busy keeping him at arm’s length.

But Dolly appreciated the break that show gave her and the story has been told many times by Dolly how she wrote I Will Always Love You as a farewell to him when she left the show. They had legal battles but she always spoke fondly of him, classy as always.

I wish I had a wonderful story about seeing her live, but the truth is I saw her live once. It was at a huge media event at Walt Disney World where Dolly performed on an outdoor stage and did a short set.

Watching all the love for her today made me a little weepy, and you would have to be a tough sucker to not get a little misty watching Whitney Houston sing that song in the Bodyguard movie.

Dolly will always have that love coming right back at her.