MADE YOU LOOK!!!

I Will Always Love you

Lori Legacy as Dolly Parton

Growing up in Oregon, I was known as the little girl with the big voice, filled with vibrato. Being painfully shy as a child, I would run and hide whenever anyone would ask me to sing. My mother, Jane, stood beside me, behind me and sometimes in front of me to protect me, until the day she died in May of 1998. When I was nine, she bought me a ventriloquist puppet for Christmas. I named her Annie and she helped me conquer my shyness. Now, I had a friend to perform with.

Impersonating voices off of the TV has always been a hobby of mine. Annie and I did voices like Mae West, John Wayne, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and Paul Lynde. Dolly didn’t come along until seven years later.

In 1974, at the tender age of ten, I was offered a recording studio contract with Caprice Record Studios. So, it was off to Nashville. Long story short, the studio wanted money, we didn’t have it. Mom and I got stuck in Tennessee for a month, made some contacts and then got me a job singing in a club to help pay our way home. Upon returning home, we put a band together and performed all over. Now I had two puppets, Simon and Sunshine, who sings songs like an auctioneer, which some say, demonstrates my mastery over vocal control. With some experience under my belt, I was now a lot more open on stage.

When I was seventeen, I wanted to sing a song in my High School talent show in Sandy, Oregon. The musical director said, “Do something else. Everyone and their brother is going to sing.” The song I had picked to do was 9 to 5. So, my mom said, “Why don’t you dress up and do a skit to the song?” We put balloons on me, the big hair and make-up. It was more like a comical spoof than anything, but with taste. The audience and my band loved it. So, we tried it out at the club we were working at that weekend. It snowballed from there. I was in a few different bands (country, 50’s & 60’s, and top 40) for the next few years, performing all over the Northwest and did a P.A.C.A.F. tour in 1988, which took me to Hawaii, Korea, Japan and the Philippines.

My mom always told me: “If you don’t enjoy it, get out of the business.” So, that’s exactly what I did in November of 1988. I took a five-year break, waitress-ed and loved it.

Then, I got the call. “Legends in Concert” wanted to audition me. Talk about traveling. They, and a number of other reputable producers and agencies, have sent me all over the world and back. I am considered an independent contractor, performing in stage production shows and impersonating Dolly Parton all over the world. It’s great fun. Everyone loves Dolly. It sure beats working 9 to 5. But, I am very grounded as far as my family life goes. They will always come first. My finest accomplishments by far are my two precious children.