Dolly Parton?s sister Stella reveals ?poor but proud? childhood

The two siblings were just two of the 12 children born into a “poor but proud” family, who lived in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee.

In her book Tell It Sister, Tell It: Memories Music And Miracles, Stella reveals that her family lived a shockingly simple life – they had no running water, gas or electricity, and slept in beds made of straw.

“I loved hearing the sound of that straw. It’s great for sleeping because it sounds like rain,” she writes.

Stella, 62, who is three years younger than the Jolene singer, describes how their “hard-working, hard-drinking Daddy” bartered for goods, services and medical care because they were so cash-poor and that when Dolly was born he gave the local doctor a “sack of meal” to deliver her.

But while her “big sister” found fame early as a childhood star before becoming an international singing sensation with multi-million dollar record deals, Stella, also a country music singer, struggled to achieve the same level of success.

“Either I can allow it [having a famous sister] to be a curse or I can find the blessing in it,” she writes.

And despite her feelings of “exclusion” from Dolly in her younger years, Stella, who went on to release 31 chart singles and tour internationally, clearly loves and respects her sister dearly.

“Dolly has done more to improve the lives of people in East Tennessee than anyone else I can think of in the last 50 years,” she writes.

Sales from the book will help support domestic violence shelters across the US.