LOCAL CONNECTION — ARTS, MEMORY & PLACE

The Dolly Parton song with a Nanuet connection.

The world knew Dolly Parton through songs that felt personal even when millions of people were listening. Tucked inside that extraordinary musical life is a small, lovely Rockland connection—and it begins with a storyteller from Nanuet.

Dolly died Tuesday, August 25, in Nashville at age 80, her family announced. It is difficult to fit a person like her into the past tense. She was a songwriter who could make heartbreak sound generous, a performer who understood the joy of a little sparkle, and a public figure whose warmth never felt manufactured. She built businesses, put books into children’s hands, opened doors for other artists, and still insisted that the songs were the legacy that mattered most. Reuters remembers her life and work ↗

For Rockland, one of those songs offers a wonderfully unexpected point of connection.

Near the end of Dolly’s 1980 album Dolly, Dolly, Dolly is a tender song called “I Knew You When.” Listen closely, then follow the writing credit home: it belongs to Rupert Holmes, the Nanuet-raised songwriter, musician, novelist, and playwright.

From Nanuet to Dolly’s record player

Holmes’s official work history lists “I Knew You When” among the songs he wrote, and Dolly’s recording sits fourth on Side B of the album. It may not be the first title people name when celebrating either artist. That almost makes discovering it sweeter. See the credit on Holmes’s official site ↗

Holmes was born in England, but Nanuet helped raise the storyteller he became. His father taught in six Rockland County schools. His early musical life included a band with young people from Spring Valley. His first official job was at the Nanuet Public Library—a wonderfully fitting beginning for someone whose career would eventually stretch across songs, novels, and the Broadway stage.

Then came the kind of artistic life most young musicians only imagine. Barbra Streisand called after hearing his work. “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” became one of those records that never really leaves the culture. And in 1985, The Mystery of Edwin Drood made Holmes the first person in Broadway history to win Tony Awards as the sole author, composer, and lyricist of a musical.

Still, he kept coming home.

In April 2024, Holmes returned to the Nanuet Public Library for a sold-out evening of stories and music. He described Nanuet as the place that had grounded him whenever life in Hollywood became a little too dreamy. There is something especially lovely about that: the boy who once worked among the library shelves coming back after a lifetime of making stories of his own. Read about Holmes’s homecoming ↗

When music makes room

Holmes’s earliest musical chapter also feels unmistakably Rockland. His band included young people from Spring Valley—a reminder that his voice was formed not only at home and among the library shelves, but in collaboration with other young artists around him. Those friendships and rehearsals became part of the local culture he carried into the wider world.

Dolly seemed to understand that kind of musical exchange instinctively. In 1987, Patti LaBelle joined her on the variety show Dolly. Sitting together in matching sequined dresses, the two women turned their acrylic nails into percussion and slipped into “Shortnin’ Bread,” harmonizing, laughing, and making space for each other’s brilliance. Revisit the story behind that 1987 moment ↗

It is a tiny scene—funny, glamorous, and musically effortless—but it says something lasting about her. Dolly could be completely herself while making room for someone else to be fully themselves, too.

Decades later, Dolly made that same kind of room for Beyoncé. On 2024’s Cowboy Carter, Dolly introduced Beyoncé’s bold reimagining of “Jolene” through the playful “Dolly P” interlude. Her songs were never meant to sit preserved behind glass; they kept meeting new voices, new generations, and new cultural conversations. Explore the Cowboy Carter connection ↗

A small connection can still mean something

There is no reliable record we have found of Dolly herself visiting or performing in Rockland, and we do not need to manufacture one. The real connection is already meaningful: a song shaped by a writer who was shaped, in part, here.

“I Knew You When” traveled from Holmes’s imagination to a Los Angeles studio and into Dolly’s voice. She had a rare gift for meeting a song where it lived. Even when the words were someone else’s, she could make them feel illuminated from within. The album around it became another chapter in a career filled with remarkable chapters; the song became a quiet meeting place between two singular storytellers. Visit the album’s track history ↗

That is the joy in this little discovery. Rockland does not have to claim Dolly to feel close to the story. We can simply be proud that someone raised among our streets, schools, bands, and library shelves wrote something worthy of her voice.

And as people everywhere return to Dolly’s music—to grieve, smile, sing along, or remember where they were when a certain song first found them—Rockland has one more track to play.

The Rockland Edit hopes to add an original photograph of the Nanuet Public Library and, if permission is granted, more of the local history surrounding Rupert Holmes’s life here. For now, the song is a beautiful place to begin.

Sources: Reuters; Rupert Holmes official site; Rockland County Times; The Dolly Parton Discography; The New Yorker; The Recording Academy. Published August 25, 2026.