Photo by Michael Patrick

Dolly Parton sings during the 75th anniversary rededication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at Newfound Gap.

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Dolly Parton knows how to work a kitchen.

By 7:30 a.m. this past Friday, she was already up and cooking breakfast for two fans of hers. Sabrina Taylor and Tabitha Hall, both of Gatlinburg, won a night at Parton’s Tennessee Mountain Home and breakfast by the superstar at a recent charity auction. They got their time with Parton at the homestead a week ago.

“We had the best time,” Parton tells the Insider column exclusively. “I didn’t know whether I should be dreading it or not. I thought, ‘I hope I don’t have to try too hard. I hope they are not uncomfortable.’

“But it was like (hosting) my own kin, my own kinfolks, because I felt like I knew them all.”

Indeed, Hall and Taylor are not strangers to Parton. They are very visible fans at nearly all of Parton’s local appearances and won a dinner with her two years ago. So Parton knew what she was getting into when she had them over to her house.

Parton offered her hospitality as part of a charity auction for the Dr. Robert F. Thomas Foundation. The women and 10 friends collected $75,000 among themselves and placed the winning bid.

Taylor and Hall pitched in the biggest slices of the $75,000, giving them the opportunity to tour Parton’s Sevier County home, attend a barbecue and bluegrass party there, spend the night at its cottage and have Parton make them breakfast.

“I had no idea they were going to be the ones to bid on it,” Parton said. “I thought it might be some company that would do it and win. I thought I might have to be with some people I didn’t know or someone I might be uncomfortable with.”

Instead, Parton said she felt right at home with the fans who won.

The singer made sausage, biscuits, scrambled eggs and fruit. “I volunteered the breakfast,” she said. “I’m a good cook.”

Taylor said the experience was worth every penny. Though Taylor and Hall got to experience the whole shebang — the breakfast, the tour and the party — 10 of their friends got to be part of the barbecue and bluegrass party.

“It was very, very much worth spending $75,000,” she said. “She had a one-on-one time with everybody.”

Hall said Parton did most of the talking during their breakfast.

“I didn’t go to bed till 3 in the morning,” Hall said of her night at the cottage. “I was so excited I just couldn’t sleep.”

Terry Morrow may be reached at morrowt@knoxville.com or 865-342-6445. His blog can be found at www.knoxville.com. He contributes to “Live At Five At Four” on WBIR, Channel 10, and “The Marc & Kim & Frank Show” on WWST-FM, 102.1.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel
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