LEXINGTON, Ky. — The late Dolly Parton once visited Letcher County, and later released a song about the tiny Eastern Kentucky town of Blackey.

Parton, who died last week of cancer, once performed at Whitesburg High School in 1968, the Mountain Eagle reported. Parton returned to Letcher County in 1980 for a surprise visit with actress Jane Fonda, ”and in 1974 recorded a song titled ‘Blackie, Kentucky’ — using a different spelling of the historic coal town’s name,” according to the Whitesburg newspaper.

The Mountain Eagle wrote about Parton’s visits to Letcher County, the story behind the song and “the decades-old local memories they left behind.“

The May 15, 1980, front page of The Mountain Eagle included photos of Parton and Fonda’s visit to Fleming-Neon and Whitesburg in Eastern Kentucky. They appeared together in the movie “9 to 5.”

Fonda was traveling through Appalachia while preparing for her role in the television adaptation of Harriette Simpson Arnow’s “The Dollmaker,” and she and Parton were on a tour bus.

The Mountain Eagle summed up the unlikely encounter with the headline, “Yes, it was Dolly and Jane.”

Parton put out a song about the town titled “Blackie, Kentucky,” on the hit 1974 album, ”Love is Like a Butterfly.”

“The album eventually reached No. 7 on Billboard’s country albums chart, while its title song went to No. 1 on the country singles chart. Contemporary reviews singled out ‘Blackie, Kentucky’ as one of the album’s stronger tracks,” the Mountain Eagle said. “There is, of course, no Letcher County community officially spelled ‘Blackie.’ There is Blackey, the historic coal town on the North Fork of the Kentucky River.”

Parton, who was born in rural East Tennessee, was seemingly inspired by the mountain town in Kentucky.

The song begins with the lyrics, “In my hometown of Blackie, Kentucky,” and tells the story of a young Appalachian woman who wants to escape poverty and “coal mines of Kentucky.”

©2026 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.