Dolly Parton’s dad couldn’t read and paid her delivery doctor in cornmeal. She credited him for her business sense

What happened next shows why Parton has routinely commented, “I got my business sense from my dad,” even though Robert Lee was illiterate his whole life.

From a sack of cornmeal to raking in the dough

Parton’s birth story is actually a perfect illustration of Robert Lee’s savvy and quick thinking that so inspired Dolly.

When Parton’s mother experienced complications during childbirth, Robert Lee rode his horse during a snowstorm to fetch Dr. Robert F. Thomas and bring him to the family’s cabin.

The country doctor was used to traveling in remote areas on horseback to reach patients, some of whom weren’t always welcoming.

“He was such a wonderful man. But he would go up into those mountains with those country people, and a lot of them would hold a gun on him: ‘If my wife dies or my daughter dies, you’re going to die, too.’ There’s lots of stories about him,” Parton said.

In this case, Thomas was able to save the day with no weapons involved, delivering Dolly safely. With no cash to give him, Robert Lee paid him with a sack of cornmeal for his services, leading Parton to quip throughout her life, “Dr. Thomas was paid for with a sack of cornmeal, and I’ve been raking in the dough ever since.”

“My daddy had a great sense of business”

Over the years, Parton shared many other examples of how her father had inspired her. She once told the BBC, “even though he wasn’t an educated man, he wasn’t able to read and write, Daddy had a great sense of business. He said, ‘Don’t let other people take advantage of you, keep your mind on your business.’ So when I got into the music business, I thought of it as a business.”

This advice prompted Dolly to launch a publishing company of her own, to maintain the rights to her own music catalog, and to diversify into different avenues of business.