Dolly Parton’s Music Was ‘an Amazing Healer’ for 3-Year-Old Girl Going Through 858 Days of Cancer Treatment (Exclusive)
Dolly Parton’s Music Was ‘an Amazing Healer’ for 3-Year-Old Girl Going Through 858 Days of Cancer Treatment (Exclusive)
Jordan GreeneFri, September 4, 2026 at 7:59 PM UTC
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Chad Tucker with his family.Credit: Chad Tucker -
Pearl Monroe Tucker found comfort in Dolly Parton’s music during her 858-day leukemia treatment as a young child
The Tucker family met Parton twice, with the singer offering heartfelt support and sharing her own family’s cancer experience
After Parton’s death, Pearl Monroe reflected on her lasting legacy, saying, “She left us so much”
For Pearl Monroe “Roe Roe” Tucker, Dolly Parton was more than a country music icon. She became a source of comfort during one of the most difficult chapters of Pearl Monroe’s childhood and, years later, someone she was lucky enough to meet.
Pearl Monroe was just 3 years old in fall 2019 when she began experiencing unexplained pain in her legs and joints. At first, her parents, Chad and Meredith Tucker, thought it might be something relatively minor. She would wake up at night saying, “Daddy, my cheeks hurt, my hands hurt,” and they wondered if she had a sinus infection or perhaps an injury.
But on Nov. 19, 2019 — Meredith’s birthday — Pearl Monroe stopped walking because her legs hurt so badly. Her parents pushed for bloodwork, and the results were alarming. Pearl Monroe’s white blood cell count was “out the roof,” Chad recalls to PEOPLE exclusively.
While the family waited for the results, Chad was at work preparing to anchor the 4 p.m. news. Around 3:45 p.m., he got a call from the doctor with the news: Pearl Monroe had been diagnosed with leukemia. Chad had just 25 minutes to drive home and tell his wife, Meredith, who was 22 weeks pregnant at the time. The Winston-Salem, N.C., couple are also parents to their oldest daughter, Carson Parry, 12, and son Franklin Reeves, now 6.
“I just remember feeling this peace that everything was going to be okay,” Chad says.
Pearl Monroe “Roe Roe” Tucker in the hospitalCredit: Chad Tucker
The family then headed to the children’s hospital, where Pearl Monroe’s diagnosis was confirmed, and her treatment began.
What followed was more than two years of chemotherapy, hospital visits and steroids. Pearl Monroe would spend 858 days in treatment, much of it during the pandemic, which added another layer of isolation to an already overwhelming experience. She couldn’t attend school or be around her friends, and she couldn’t experience many of the ordinary parts of childhood.
As the months of treatment wore on, Pearl Monroe experienced what her family called “roid rage,” screaming and saying she felt like she wanted to “come out of her skin.” Her parents searched for anything that might soothe her, eventually discovering that a bath paired with Parton’s music could help bring her back to a calmer place.
Songs including “9 to 5,” “Jolene” and “Love Is Like a Butterfly” became part of Pearl Monroe’s routine.
“Dolly’s music was an amazing healer,” Chad says.
Pearl Monroe “Roe Roe” Tucker next to books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.Credit: Chad Tucker
The music became one of the small things Pearl Monroe could count on when so much of her life felt out of her control. And the comfort she found in Parton extended beyond the songs playing in her home.
Pearl Monroe had loved Parton for years and was enrolled in her Imagination Library, which sends books to children by mail. During her cancer treatment, those monthly deliveries took on an even greater significance, giving Pearl Monroe something to look forward to while so many other parts of her childhood were put on hold.
“She couldn’t go to school. She couldn’t be around her friends. She couldn’t do a lot of things,” Chad says. “But she could still get those books.”
Eventually, after 858 days of treatment, Pearl Monroe reached the milestone she had been waiting for. She took her final pill at home on Jan. 30, 2022. Two months later, on her sixth birthday, she rang the bell celebrating the end of her treatment.
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Pearl Monroe never expected she would one day get the chance to thank Parton herself. That moment came in March 2024, when the Tuckers traveled to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., for opening weekend. Pearl Monroe made a sign that read, “Dolly, your music helped me beat cancer.”
When Parton saw it, she stopped in her tracks. “She stopped and said, ‘Are you all better now?’ ” Chad recalls.
Chad Tucker with his family.Credit: Chad Tucker
When Pearl Monroe told her she was, Parton hugged her and told her how happy she was. For a little girl who had spent years listening to Parton’s voice during some of her hardest days, the encounter was unforgettable. But it wasn’t their last.
The following year, the Tuckers returned to the same hotel during Dollywood’s opening weekend. Parton’s team remembered Pearl Monroe and invited the family in to see her again. Parton asked which child had been sick, and when the Tuckers told her it was Pearl Monroe, the interaction once again felt remarkably personal despite Parton’s enormous fame.
“She was a global icon, but she made you feel like she was in my granny’s kitchen serving cornbread and pinto beans,” he says. “I just felt calm and loved around her.”
Pearl Monroe “Roe Roe” Tucker and her sister Carson Parry with Dolly Parton.Credit: Chad Tucker
Pearl Monroe and her family used the opportunity to thank Parton for everything she had done for children, including those going through cancer treatment. Chad also talked with her about “Chemo Hero,” a song she had created for children with cancer.
Parton then shared that her niece had battled leukemia as a child and survived, giving her an immediate personal connection to Pearl Monroe’s experience. But for Pearl Monroe, Parton’s impact went beyond the songs, the books or even those two unforgettable meetings.
“She taught us that heart matters,” Chad says, explaining that Parton showed Pearl Monroe what it means to love people and use what you have to help someone else.
“We don’t let our kids idolize people,” Chad adds. “But we do let them look up to Dolly Parton.”
Pearl Monroe has carried that lesson with her. She now volunteers and raises money for childhood cancer causes, and she helped inspire her family’s “Hero Library,” which provides books to children going through cancer treatment — a way of passing along the same comfort Parton’s books once gave her.
So when Pearl Monroe learned on Aug. 25 that Parton had died, the loss was deeply personal. She wasn’t just saying goodbye to a singer she loved. She was saying goodbye to someone whose music had comforted her through cancer treatment, whose books had given her something to look forward to and whose kindness had stayed with her long after treatment ended.
The Tucker family with Dolly Parton.Credit: Chad Tucker
Chad and Meredith picked their children up from school and told them the news together. Their oldest child was immediately upset, but Pearl Monroe was quieter. Then she offered a perspective that, to Chad, captured exactly what Parton had come to mean to her.
“Well, I don’t really feel like she’s gone because she left us so much,” Chad recalls Pearl Monroe saying.
“I think that’s everybody’s goal,” he adds. “To live a life that gives so much and leaves so much behind to help other people that when you’re gone, people still feel you in their hearts.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
