She definitely deserves one
Dolly Parton has revealed that she twice turned down the offer of the Presidential Medal of Freedom over the last four years.
Speaking on The Today Show in the US, Dolly said she declined the accolade due to personal reasons.
“I got offered the Freedom award from the Trump administration. I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” she explained via video link.
Dolly went on to confirm to say that she has actually heard from Joe BIden’s administration, but is unsure if she could accept it without it becoming political.
“Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure,” she said. “But I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”
Last year, Barack Obama has admitted he “screwed up” not giving Dolly Parton a Presidential Medal of Freedom during his time in the White House.
The former president said he thought the legendary folk singer had already been given one.
“Actually, that was a screw up, I assumed she had already got one, and that was incorrect,” said Obama while appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“She deserves one, I’ll call Biden.”
A Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours.”
It cannot be argued that Dolly Parton doesn’t deserve one. Not only for her services to music, but also her commitment to public health – the folk icon recently helped fund the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, making a $1m donation to Vanderbilt University medical centre.
