Page 3 Profile: Dolly Parton, country singer

Dolly Parton, Country singer (Getty)

What’s she up to?

The country music legend has just unveiled her latest business idea, the “DreamMore Resort”, a 300-room holiday complex next to the Dollywood Theme Park in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. It will take 10 years to build and cost £190m.

So the resort will be big. What else?

It will also benefit the local town, Pigeon Forge, creating 2,500 jobs. Dollywood is already the largest employer in Pigeon Forge and beats Graceland, Elvis’s home in Memphis, as Tennessee’s most-visited attraction. The town’s director of tourism, Leon Downey, said: “Dolly is extremely smart, a very intelligent businesswoman, very sincere and she’s got one the quickest minds around.”

That’s all fine, but will I get to roast marshmallows in the open air?

Yes, you will! DreamMore is Southern-themed, meaning guests will enjoy a relaxed atmosphere and activities such as roasting marshmallows around campfires and sitting on rocking chairs on porches.

She’s a good’un, isn’t she?

Dolly is worth an estimated £300m; but she is known for giving back. She also runs the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, a charity through which she has donated more than 50 million books to pre-school children in America, Canada and Britain.