Cas Walker Shared Why Men Avoided Dolly Parton
In 1956, Dolly Parton made her first appearance on Cas Walker’s Farm and Home Hour. The program helped her get her start in the music industry and taught her how to perform. She worked surrounded by men, but Walker said Parton stood her own. He also said that men tended to avoid her.
Cas Walker said men avoided Dolly Parton
When Parton began appearing on Farm and Home Hour, Walker felt he needed to protect her from the various musicians surrounding her.
“I went on a lot of show dates I wouldn’t have went on, but she was fourteen or so, and I went to keep her from bein’ out there with a bunch of tush-hogs,” Walker said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Those tush-hogs — and there are a lot of ‘em in country music — weren’t safe to be around women. Just couldn’t behave themselves, and I never would let Dolly get out with those kind of people. She might not appreciate that, but it’s the truth.”
Still, he said that this wasn’t as much of a problem with Parton as he’d anticipated.
“Still, even though she’s pretty, men don’t advance on Dolly like they would most young girls that’s that pretty,” he said. “I think it’s because she kinda holds herself up by usin’ the Lord’s name a right smart. It’s kind of a byword with her, but I think it helps sell .. . well, she does it in a way that you almost know she’s religious, you know. Course, Dolly’s got a lot of good traits, but she’s got one real good one. She just never did let nobody start mullin’ over her.”
Dolly Parton knew how to deal with the men she worked with on Cas Walker’s show
Bud Brewster, who played banjo on Walker’s show, said Parton held herself well. While she was significantly younger than the people she was working with, she stood her ground in interactions with them.
“We had twelve or fifteen men and boys on the show and you know there’s always somebody smartin’ off,” Brewster said. “But she’d always take it good. You could tease her and she’d always laugh about it. And she knew how to handle ’em. She asked one of the boys to play something with her one time, and he said somethin’ smart to her, and she turned right around and throwed it back at him real heavy.”
Walker agreed. She made it clear that she was to be taken seriously despite her young age.
“She stood her ground and didn’t let nobody push her around,” he said, adding, “She’s amazing how she gets along with people. She’s actually got no bad enemies. She don’t want to hurt nobody, but yet she don’t want nobody to hurt her. She’ll stand up — I mean, she’ll stand up like a bantam, if she has to.”
He said she was destined for success from a young age
Walker believed that these traits set up Parton for success. She was a hard worker who knew her worth.
“Couple of times I wanted to say somethin’ to her about those short dresses, but she’s the kind of person that you’re a little hesitant to say anything to, you know, ’cause she’s got a temper,” he said. “I don’t believe she ever got real mad at me, but she has at someone else, and she would have at me if I hadn’t taken sides with her. Still, I’ve seen her when I knowed that she could shoot me, but she’d just look a hole through me. I’m confident that her independent ways plus her unusual voice put her over.”
