Two stories in Wednesday’s Tennessean highlighted just what a contrast there can be in the lives of  celebrities.

The first was a local story about Nashville joining Tennessee’s Dolly Parton book program which will furnish books for the first five years of a child’s life.  The program received front page local section coverage, with a photo, focusing on young children, Dolly, and Gov. Phil Bredesen, who is bringing this program to Tennessee.

The second was a national story, about 14 column inches, with a head shot, on page A8. It was the continuing coverage of the Michael Jackson trial in California.  The trial gets coverage daily in virtually every national newspaper, network and cable television, and usually warrants a mention in the five minute hourly radio updates.

The lives of both of these celebrities have personally touched me, directly or indirectly,  over the past four decades.

When I first began to hear about Dolly Parton as she began her climb to stardom, I realized that I didn’t know her. We both lived in Sevierville in the early 60s when I was fresh out of college working as the editor of the Sevierville and Gatlinburg newspapers.  What I did know was where she came from.  “Frog Alley” in Sevierville was about as poor a “neighborhood” as one could imagine; calling it a slum would be an insult to slums..  The poor folks who lived in Frog Alley were at the bottom of a poor county’s  economic and social ladder.  That’s where Dolly came from.

Later I learned that Dolly began “paying back” almost immediately as she achieved success. Her first payback was to the Sevier County High School band, which had given her a spot and an instrument and began to broaden her life’s view far beyond “Frog Alley.”  For years she gave an annual concert to benefit the band, helping make it one of the best equipped in the state.

Turn the clock ahead to 1984, when, as a marketing and promotions professional, I learned a truly important lesson on the value of “celebrity.”  My fiancé and I were on our way to Vancouver, British Columbia as guests of the Canadian government for the opening of the 1984 World’s Fair.  At stops along the way in Denver, San Francisco and Seattle there were stories datelined Pigeon Forge about the opening of Dollywood. That weekend the Vancouver paper, amidst a state visit from the Prince of Wales and Princess Di for the opening of the World’s Fair, ran a 20-inch story with photo of Dollywood’s opening.  Believe me, the opening of a theme park other than Disney would not have merited any coverage, but Dolly’s name made it news. (Ironically, my late partner, Tom Jackson, is the one who came up with the concept of revamping the aging Silver Dollar City park, naming it Dollywood and selling it to Dolly; further irony: Tom’s widow, Lady Jackson, is Gov.Bredesen’s designated cabinet member to carry out the reading program in Tennessee) .

Dolly wasted little time in developing further payback for her home county . In addition to her namesake theme park providing the spark that made Pigeon Forge a tourist boom town, she quietly addressed the fact that Sevier County had one of the nation’s lowest high school graduation rates.  In one of poorest schools in the county, she developed a program where eighth grade students would team in pairs and, if both graduated from high school, each would then receive $1,000.  This was the epitome of “putting your money where your mouth is” and creating something concrete and achievable for kids.  Needless to say, Sevier County’s graduation rates improved dramatically.

Michael Jackson came directly into my life in 1984, when he started his historic “Victory Tour” across the U.S.  I consulted with the organizers on several concerts and brought the show to Knoxville where more than 160,000 saw three shows in Neyland Stadium.  There was no bigger star then than Michael, and his tour became the largest and most successful in rock n’ roll history. Michael was already a megastar, but the income from this tour made him a mega-millionaire.  Other than a few hundred underprivileged kids getting into the concert free, I was not aware of any “paybacks” from Michael.

As I said, the contrast between the two is stark.  Not to judge Michael during his current legal travails, but I doubt we will see a many character witnesses pointing out real positive paybacks from Michael. Some would say he is getting his payback now.

To me, Dolly set a pattern from the outset of her career by paying back early and often..  She has never claimed to be perfect; she’s just plain ole Dolly doing her thing for education and the kids.

But every celebrity should realize the power they have, as well as the positive or negative forces that fame certainly brings.  There’s not a celebrity in America who wouldn’t do well to take notes from the girl from “Frog Alley.”  Thanks, Dolly, you’re a true Tennessee angel.