For years, Mary Berry attended a small Baptist church in rural Kentucky where her family farmed for generations. She taught Sunday school, brought food to potlucks, and served as a deacon alongside a janitor, tenant farmer, and doctor. Everyone knew everyone, and differences were not discussed. But as the local economy suffered in the early 2000s, so did the congregation. Disputes arose over cultural and political topics, a pastor was ousted over same-sex marriage, and Ms. Berry left.

"As I got older and began to see the loss of the cohesive agrarian culture I grew up in, I began to see what we were really losing was that sort of gathering where all kinds of people gathered as equals," Ms. Berry, daughter of poet and farmer Wendell Berry, recalled. "It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn good."

She spoke days after the death of Dolly Parton, shaped by small rural churches in Appalachia. Since her passing in Nashville at age 80, tributes have poured in from conservative Southern Baptists and progressive Unitarians alike. Many mourned not just her as a performer, but as a Christian representing an idealized Southern faith—folksy, unpretentious, centered in small rural congregations.

Those small churches "are very place-based, deeply rooted institutions," said Jessie Wilkerson, historian at the University of Tennessee. Ms. Parton's lifetime saw megachurches replace intimate congregations. About one in three Protestant churchgoers now attends churches drawing 1,000+ weekly. Large churches with multiple campuses have strained smaller congregations. Her grandfather pastored the House of Prayer in Sevier County, Tenn. She sang in choir by age 6, baptized in Little Pigeon River at 12. Her faith infused countless songs despite tensions between God, music, and sex. "Rural southern Christianity seemed much warmer than now," said Russell Moore of Christianity Today. "People knew when someone was sick." But he cautioned against idealizing: "The shadow side was often propping up horrific sin, such as Jim Crow."