Dolly Parton Declined Medal Of Freedom From President Trump Twice

Dolly Parton told the Today show this morning in an interview that former President Donald Trump's administration tried to give her the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, twice but she had to turn them down.

Dolly explained, "I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID," adding that she has since heard from President Joe Biden about the award as well, "Now I feel like if I take it, I'll be doing politics, so I'm not sure."

Parton continued, "But I don't work for those awards. It'd be nice but I'm not sure that I even deserve it. But it's a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it."

https://www.today.com/popculture/dolly-parton-turned-down-presidential-medal-freedom-twice-t207752

Late last year she told Today, "I'm just happy that anything I do can help somebody else, and when I donated the money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to do good. Evidently, it is."

You may remember when former President Barack Obama said he should have given the singer the prestigious award, when Stephen Colbert asked him, "How does Dolly Parton not have a presidential medal of freedom?" Obama responded, "That's a mistake. I'm shocked. Actually, that was a screwup, I'm surprised. I think I assumed that she'd already got one and that was incorrect. I'm surprised, she deserves one."