How Dolly Parton inspired revitalized downtown in Pleasant Hill, Missouri

PLEASANT HILL, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. This story was brought to us by members of the KSHB 41 Cass County Community Advisory Board. If you are interested in joining or sharing your story, reach out to Ryan. Share your story idea with Ryan.

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If you want to understand Pleasant Hill, Missouri, start with the people.

They are the kind of folks who wave at strangers and actually mean it when they ask, "How are you?"

It is a small town and right now, a little bit of pink, some big hair, and a whole lot of heart has pulled this community closer together.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

It turns out, that is exactly what Dolly Parton would have wanted.

Downtown Dolly's Sip and Shop started as a vision.

It's a business inspired by Parton's spirit before she died this week. Now, draped in tributes and the color pink, it has become something more: a memorial, a gathering place, and a love letter to an icon from the people who felt like they knew her.

Heather Thackery, owner of Salon Chalet, did not have to search hard for the right words.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

"She said it was hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world, and she made herself larger than life," Thackery said. "She made herself a diamond in a rhinestone world."

That's the thing about Dolly Parton. She had a way of making everyone feel like she belonged to them. And when her fans and the world lost her, it stung.

"To lose an icon like that, it's ... it puts you in a reality check," Tracey Smith, a vendor and Dolly Parton fan, said. "That we're not here forever and do what you need to do while you're here,"

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

The grief was visible. Dolly tributes and the color pink spread across downtown and its businesses, a spontaneous outpouring from a community that did not need much of a reason to celebrate her, but now had every reason to remember the superstar.

What makes this moment even more meaningful is where it is happening.

Downtown Pleasant Hill has not always looked like it does now. By the 1980s, the area's buildings were largely boarded up and empty, a casualty of the railroad's decline and the slow drift of commerce out to the Missouri Highway 7 corridor. The was still life, but the heartbeat was faint.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

Thackery remembers how different it looked just ten years ago.

"Maybe three, five, 10 years ago, it was a ghost town down here," Thackery said. "We had buildings fall down here, and it was like, 'What's going to happen with downtown?'"

What happened was a group of women decided they weren't going to wait for someone else to fix the town.

They restored buildings, brought in businesses and transformed what was once a ghost town into a destination worth making the drive to see what was new.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

"Every time you come here, it's something new going on," Smith said.

Thackery said it's slowly started to build, and build, and build.

It's a coalition, but Julie Brown is in the middle of it all.

Brown works with the Pleasant Hill Historic District and owns Brown's Vintage and Variety.

Her organization serves as Pleasant Hill's Missouri Main Street chapter. She watched this downtown find its footing one storefront at a time.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

For Brown, the connection to Parton runs deep.

Parton's hit song, "Coat of Many Colors," is an anthem for her family and for the town's past — a song about making something beautiful out of very little.

"Some of us came from very little ourselves," Brown said, her voice catching with emotion, referencing her husband's upbringing. "To have a role model make something of themselves."

That is the thread that ties it all together. Parton did not just make music. She built something from nothing, with grit and with generosity. The women of downtown Pleasant Hill have done the same.

Fabian Rosales/KSHB

"It's like the human condition; you get to spend time together. You don't get that just buying something off the internet, it's something we can do," Brown said.

Thackery said that spirit — the one Parton lived out loud every day — is exactly what drives these women to show up for each other.

"We all support each other and that's what Dolly would've done," Thackery said.
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And so, in a small town in rural Cass County, Missouri, they are doing what Dolly always said to do.

"Dolly would say, 'keep celebrating,''' Brown added.

They intend to keep their friendships and their town strong and together.

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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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