Dolly Parton and Her Cousin Georgia ‘Road Hog’ Justus Were ‘Wilder’ Than the Other Girls Growing Up

Dolly Parton had trouble making friends throughout school. She was resented for playing gigs around town and singing on the radio. Some of her peers spread horrible rumors about her. But the singer did have a small group of girlfriends she could count on. One of those friends was her cousin Georgia “Road Hog” Justus. While many of the girls at Parton’s school were quiet and mild-mannered, Parton and her cousin were not.  

How Georgia got her nickname

So how did Georgia “Road Hog” Justus come to be? Parton’s cousin on her father’s side earned the nickname due to her driving habits. 

“We called her Road Hog because of the way she drove the old rattletrap of a car that her daddy had got for her,” Parton wrote in her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “None of us knew anything about driving. I guess Georgia was afraid of running into something on the side of the road or into the ditch, because she would kind of take her half of the road out of the middle. The rest of us didn’t care so much, as long as we had a ride, but other drivers used to honk at her all the time.”

Justus’ old car took the girls all over town, particularly to “chase boys.” 

The antics Dolly and Georgia used to get up to 

“Georgia and I were just a little wilder than most of the other girls,” wrote Parton. “We were kin, after all, and wild hares did run rampant in our family.”

The “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” singer and Justus would drive around their hometown and the neighboring communities and have a rip-roaring good time. 

“We used to cruise Gatlinburg and Sevierville, circling the Tastee-Freez, flirting with the boys, and singing,” wrote Parton. “I’d always carry my guitar.” 

Parton and her cousin stood out from many of the other girls around town, who were much quieter, according to the singer. 

“Most of the girls around there were kind of shy, and I would always manage to attract the boys with my singing and joking,” she wrote. 

Georgia supported Dolly’s dreams of becoming a famous singer 

Even in high school, Parton had big plans of becoming famous for her singing and songwriting. Justus was a big part of her support system. In addition to being a vehicle for chasing boys, Road Hog’s old beat-up car acted as a sanctuary for Parton to write many a song. 

“Georgia listened to my dreams, like Judy [Ogle, Parton’s best friend] did,” wrote Parton. “She believed me when I talked about all the things I was going to do. She loved the songs I’d write and took pride in the fact that I wrote them in her car. I know she did, because she recently went on a segment of Geraldo about growing up with celebrities and said so.”