Dolly Parton is the reigning queen of country music, an iconic artist in command of her own career and image, and a thriving business empire to boot. But her rise was not an easy one. Born into poverty in east Tennessee, she left for Nashville at 18 with her belongings in three paper bags. Even as she shot to fame and conquered a male-dominated world that underestimated her at every turn, she never lost her connection to the working-class community she sprang from. In this affectionate, sharply insightful book, Sarah Smarsh draws on her own experience growing up in rural Kansas to craft a resonant portrait of Parton's cultural importance, above all for the often unheard women who populate her songs: struggling mothers, pregnant teenagers, diner waitresses with deadbeat boyfriends. At once candidly intimate and searchingly analytical, She Come By It Natural captures the endur She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women ing appeal of this singular star.