Geographically, Tennessee’s Dollywood might be a ways away from Michigan, but a small slice of it managed to make the trek up to Waltonwood Main in Rochester Hills, MI (with the proper permissions, of course). When the country music and entertainment icon turned 78 on Jan. 19, the senior living community decided to turn it into a weeklong celebration of her life and accomplishments.
“When I was looking at programming for an assisted living and memory care community, I was just trying to think of what we can do besides snowflakes in Michigan,” said Lindsay Charlefour, director of life enrichment at Waltonwood Senior Living. “I just thought, we have the same philosophy [at] Waltonwood to what I learned as I was doing my research about Dolly Parton and [it] would make our residents’ experience magical and meaningful, and so we made it happen.”
Among the festivities were line dancing, a Dolly Parton lookalike contest, some desserts straight from Dollyworld, displays detailing Parton’s work, and even a miniature horse, Macho, gussied up in a blonde wig. Additionally, keeping with Parton’s affinity for charity, the community currently is running a book drive for her Imagination Library to distribute to children in the greater community. Charlefour said that the community aims to collect 78 books, just like Parton’s age, through March 1.
“One of the things that I read [was] that her dad was most proud of her for being the ‘book lady,’ so that’s what we decided to do. We all have purpose, and we all want to live with intention and make an impact and have relationships and connections,” Charlefour said. “This is an opportunity for our residents to make other connections with other residents with Dolly or books as the common denominator. [It’s about] giving our residents a variety of opportunities meeting them where they’re at in their life.”
Although Parton is notable for being widely admired, Charlefour believes that she embodies the values that many residents hold dear. It may be difficult to age as gracefully as Parton has, but the folks at Waltonwood might give her a run for her money.
“I think they felt really special honoring someone who is so genuine and her own person. She’s got wit, wisdom — all the things, and they really, really captured that spirit of Dolly and made it their own,” Charlefour said. “The one thing that you can’t take away from Dolly is her heart, her soul and her spirit, and that’s something that the residents relate to, because they are living their best life at 80, 90-plus years old, and so is Dolly.”
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