Reba McEntire Recalls the First Time She Met Dolly Parton at Her 1977 Opry Debut: ‘She Looked Just Like an Angel’

Reba McEntire recalled how she met her late friend Dolly Parton.

In an interview with Vogue on Tuesday, Sept. 15, just one day after she paid tribute to the late country icon at the Emmy Awards, the three-time Grammy winner recalled how the duo met in 1977.

“The first time I was in her presence, it was September 17, 1977,” McEntire, 71, told the publication. “I was making my Grand Ole Opry debut and was supposed to sing two songs that night. They came to me and said one of my songs was going to have to be cut because Dolly Parton had just walked in the back door.”

She added, “I said, ‘Heck, you can have both of them if I can just meet Dolly!’ I will never forget her walking through in this beautiful black chiffon outfit with rhinestone butterflies. She looked just like an angel!”

On Monday, Sept. 14, McEntire paid tribute to Parton — who died at the age of 80 on Aug. 25 — at the Emmys by singing the 1983 ballad “Appalachian Memories.” When she finished singing, the country icon said, “I love you, Dolly. So much.”

For the performance, McEntire was “loaned” pieces from Parton’s archives, per The Dolly Archive Instagram page.

The “Tourist” performer wore the late musician’s butterfly rings (the animal being one of her favorite motifs) from her “personal collection” and the statement earrings Parton sported in the visual for “Does He Love You” with McEntire.

Of her ensemble that paid tribute to Parton, McEntire told Vogue, “My manager, Justin McIntosh, surprised me by asking Dolly’s niece, Rebecca, if they would loan some of Dolly’s jewelry for me to wear. They graciously said yes, and it was an honor to have a little piece of her on stage with me. I picked a pair of rhinestone earrings and a butterfly ring. There’s nothing that says Dolly more than rhinestones and butterflies!”

Prior to the “Fancy” hitmaker’s set at the Emmys on Monday night, Sally Field said in a speech, “If there are truly angels on earth, then we just lost one, Dolly Parton.”

She continued, “It was my great good fortune to have worked with Dolly in a film called Steel Magnolias, and over the years, I never stopped loving her. Though we lived very far apart, I adored her from day one. How could you not?”

Field, 79, also called Parton “genuine and humble, supportive, and blisteringly funny, with a bawdy sense of humor that would send any rude guy looking for a place to hide.”

“I couldn’t see then what a real giant Dolly was-not just as an artist, but as a human,” she said, before adding: “She was a humanitarian whose contributions had made a profound difference in the lives of so many in her home state of Tennessee and across our country. God bless you, Dolly Parton, my friend. I am not the only one on earth that will love you forever and ever.”