Tuesday's passing of beloved country music legend, actor and philanthropist Dolly Parton at age 80 from cancer had many Winchester residents reminiscing about the time she performed on the steps of John Handley High School during the 51st Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival.
Parton, who was on tour at the time, sang before a crowd of 7,000 in the Handley Bowl on May 6, 1978. It was a chilly Saturday night.
The following Monday, the front page of the Winchester Evening Star was filled with Apple Blossom Festival coverage. The main headline: "Weather failed to dampen 51st."
In addition to a photo a festival Queen Gigi Garner, daughter of "The Rockford Files" actor James Garner, there was a photo of a clown and, on the lower left side of the page, this headline: "'Dolly' sings to 7,000 at Handley" written by staff reporter George M. Stoddart.
Longtime Star photographer Scott Mason, who was working as a stringer for the newspaper at the time, was assigned to take photos at Parton's concert.
Rocker Andrew Gold — whose hits included "Lonely Boy" and "Thank You for Being a Friend" — opened for her.
But "the crowd didn't come to hear Andrew Gold," Mason recalled this week. When Gold was done performing, he said something to the effect of, "Well, thanks to all the Dolly fans," and walked off, Mason reminisced.
Parton didn't participate in any other festival events.
A few months later, Rolling Stone published an interview with Parton, and the writer mentioned being on Parton's tour bus in Winchester, Virginia, Mason added.
Here's the article that was published in the Winchester Evening Star on Monday, May 8, 1978, about Parton's once-in-a-lifetime performance on the Handley steps:
"Dolly Parton lured an estimated 7,000 devotees to the Handley Bowl Saturday night, and rewarded them with a taste of what America's going to get over the next four months.
Miss Parton's Apple Blossom Festival stop was the second of a planned four-month tour which her bookers hope will propel her to the heights of musical and billing success.
As an act, she's just getting big.
Manager Bill Sammeth said her current album, 'Here You Come Again,' has waxed 'platinum.' In the music 'biz' that means the record has sold over 1 million pressings. It wasn't always that way.
Prior to the "Here You Come Again' recording, Miss Parton's biggest seller had netted only 110,000 sales.
So Winchester is one step on her escalator ride to the stars.
Under the stars at the Handley Bowl, she knocked out the crowd — who cheered wildly, despite her late start.
Decked out in a platinum wig, more conservative than some she sports, and a white pants outfit, she appeared restrained.
'I'm freezing to death,' she joked with the throng bundling in the low-50-degree temperatures. Breath was visible from her heavily-lipsticked mouth as she belted out the first of more than a dozen tunes.
Her set traced musical paths her career has followed, running from the current heavily-amplified electric sound, back to the lone banjo sound that is at her roots.
These divergent styles illuminate Miss Parton at a crossroads in her career.
Her career is changing.
One year ago, her agents gambled on the switch from pure country music to the electric sound which has brought her to the top of the national 'Top 40' charts with 'Here You Come Again' and 'Two Doors Down.'
Gambling it was.
Miss Parton cradled a warm following with her country sound from her appearances on the Porter Wagner television show. They cheered the steel guitar, banjo sound. And they netted her a profitable career.
Profitable, yes, but superstar no.
Hence, the switch-over to electric.
Five tons of amplifiers pulling more than 700 amps faced the Handley Bowl for her concert. Two days of work went into the construction of the stage above the bowl and placement of the sound magnifiers.
Hired away from Cher and the Greg Allman Band, her equipment 'genius' is Chuck Mintz.
'We're not at the point, electrically, that some groups like the Rolling Stones are. But, there's a lot of equipment here," he said while finalizing microphone checks prior to the Andrew Gold concert — Dolly's warm-up act.
More graphically, the change in Dolly's image/career appears with her traveling entourage.
Last year, if she had attended the Apple Blossom Festival, all her equipment could have been carried in the under-belly of her Land Cruiser bus.
Now, one semi-trailer and a second truck haul in the fixtures.
Going along with the electric wardrobe is her new uniform.
Displayed on the cover of her newest album is Dolly wearing 'Daisy Mae' garb. Poured into her clothes, she resembles the marriage-hungry character in L'il Abner — with all her contours on display.
It's all part of the image her handlers want.
But Dolly, who grew up not too far from the mythical Dogpatch, U.S.A., seems aloof from it all.
She sings to the 7,000 in the Handley Bowl like she sang on the street corners of Severe County, Tenn. during her youth. She's not fazed.
She lives in a world made beautiful by painted butterflys, her symbol, a carpeted bus, new costumes, and floods of wigs. It's a world mostly away from home.
For four months, the Howard Johnson's and Holiday Inns of Winchester, Hampton Roads, and America will be her homes as she strives for the wealth missing from her origins in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee.
Saturday night, live, she brought her act, country plugged in to the mainstream, to Winchester.
The crowd loved it."