Dolly Parton Made the Painful Decision to Fire Her Best Friend
Dolly Parton met her best friend, Judy Ogle, when they were both children. They remained friends through school and into Parton’s years of fame, at which time Ogle joined her on the road. After a while, though, this started to cause problems between them. According to some close to the singer, Parton had to make the difficult decision to let her best friend go. Here’s how this impacted their relationship.
Dolly Parton had to tell her best friend they could no longer work together
In 1977, Ogle, who had been helping Parton keep her career in order, abruptly returned home. Members of Parton’s band weren’t sure if she’d quit, or if she’d been fired.
One member of Parton’s band heard Ogle quit because she was tired of life away from home. Others wondered if Ogle’s position had become superfluous when Parton signed with new management, or if her new management worried about the closeness of their relationship. According to guitarist Don Roth, though, Parton had to let Ogle go because she was taking her job too personally. She didn’t like to hear people say a negative word about her friend.
“I went on the road when Judy left,” Roth said in the book Dolly by Alanna Nash. “Judy was really fired. Gently, and for her own good. Judy’s a very quiet, very intelligent, soft-spoken girl, who just basically does her job and keeps everything inside. She worries a lot about Dolly when Dolly’s having a bad time of it on the road, as happens to stars when things get too busy or too hectic. And Judy would take it all personally. And too seriously. She used to get so upset when the band would be complaining about things, just as everybody does.”
Roth said Parton realized that Ogle’s position was causing her more harm than good, so she gently let her go.
“I think she was really run-down, and Dolly just finally said, ‘Judy, you’re my friend, and the best thing is for you to quit the road,’” he recalled. “It was the best thing Dolly could do for Judy, in Dolly’s estimation. I haven’t seen Judy since. She sent her home.”
Dolly Parton and her best friend repaired their relationship
According to guitarist Tom Rutledge, Parton and Ogle didn’t speak for a time after this.
“Dolly and Judy just had a falling out,” Rutledge said. “I don’t know that much about it. But just a few days ago [April ’78], they spoke to each other for the first time in a year. It’s no big deal. uncivil to each other, but they just had a parting of the ways.”
He said their friendship was back on good terms once they began speaking again.
“She was living back in Sevierville for awhile, but she and Dolly are fine friends right now,” he said. “They just don’t work together anymore. They don’t have any ill feelings toward each other.”
The singer speaks highly of Ogle
Though working together may not have worked out, Parton considers Ogle her greatest friend and a “soul mate.”
“A true friend is one of the greatest gifts a person can ever have,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “They say that in order to have a friend, you have to be one. No truer words were ever spoken. Judy and I have given a lot, and we have taken a lot. We have had our problems, our ups and downs, but the love has always been great enough to overcome.”
