Country music legend and fashion icon Dolly Parton turns 72 years old

PHOTOS: The longevity of Dolly Parton Country singer Dolly Parton poses for a portrait by her tour bus before performing in September 1977 in Detroit, Michigan. See more photos of Dolly through the years... PHOTOS: The longevity of Dolly Parton Country singer Dolly Parton poses for a portrait by her tour bus before performing in September 1977 in Detroit, Michigan. See more photos of Dolly through the years... Photo: Donaldson Collection, Getty Photo: Donaldson Collection, Getty Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close Country music legend and fashion icon Dolly Parton turns 72 years old 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

Today legendary country star Dolly Parton turns 72 years old. She’s known for her distinctive voice, build, and that blonde hedge of hair that seems to climb closer to God as the years go by.

Born in 1946, Parton began her musical career picking on a guitar in her family's bare bones home in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

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She began performing songs in front of audiences at just 10 years old. She turned 18 and moved to Nashville for good.

"Probably the best birthday I ever had was when I turned 18, because I had been traveling back and forth to Nashville all those years before, and I knew my Daddy would send a posse after me if I left before I was 18," she says on her website.

The rest is country music history, likely blaring out of a dive bar jukebox or a classic country radio station somewhere. You've woken up to "9 to 5" and probably broken up to "I Will Always Love You" at some point.

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By her count she says she's written thousands of songs.

Earlier this week the she earned accolades from the Emmys, the Guinness World Records camp, and the Recording Industry Association of America.

The Guinness folks recognized her for having the "Most Decades with a Top 20 hit on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart" and "Most Hits on Billboard's Hot Country Songs Chart by a Female Artist".

The Emmys (namely the The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences) honored her for her 2016 telethon, Smoky Mountains Rise, which raised money for Tennesseans impacted by wildfires.

Photo: Gary Fountain, Gary Fountain/For The Chronicle Dolly Parton in concert at NRG Arena on December 5, 2016.

The RIAA awarded her with four plaques this week, including gold records for "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You". Additionally her song "9 to 5" earned a platinum award for over 1 million streams and downloads.

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Since Whitney Houston's recording of the Parton-penned "I Will Always Love You" just racked up 3 million streams and downloads, she got another plaque for that.

She’s also Miley Cyrus’ godmother. By the way Miley does a great version of "Jolene" in her own right.

Fun fact: Parton once entered a Dolly look-alike contest and lost. Imagine that.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.