Parton recently opened up about her relationship with her father, a hardworking farmer who, after his daughter became wildly successful, helped her keep her fame from going to her head. "Daddy used to go down to the courthouse where they had erected a statue of me," Parton said on the exercise app Apple Fitness+ Time to Walk (via People). "I remember myself being so proud of that statue... I thought, 'A statue of me in the courthouse yard? That's usually reserved for presidents and people that have done really great things like that.'"
She continued, "So I went home and I said, 'Daddy did you know, they're putting a statue of me ... down at the courthouse?' And Daddy said, 'Well yeah, I heard about that.' And he said, 'Now to your fans out there you might be some sort of an idol. But to them pigeons, you ain't nothing but another outhouse."
In spite of the humbling statement Parton's dad made about the statue, he was very proud of his daughter. Parton revealed that her dad would regularly visit the statue and keep it clean. "That touched me so much," she said. "I loved my daddy and wanted him to be proud of himself, as I was proud of him."
