Atomic roots: Dolly Parton’s secret connection to Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Tucked among the modern research facilities and humming supercomputers of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) sits a tiny, prewar churchyard, a perfectly preserved remnant of the Appalachian farming communities removed in 1942 to make room for the Manhattan Project.

While scientists advance the future of global technology, the soil beneath them holds an entirely different kind of history.

Before the valley was chosen as the birthplace of the atomic age, it was home to communities such as Wheat, Park City and Burns Mill, where Bethel Valley Church still stands today. These tight-knit communities were home to generations of farmers, blacksmiths and loggers who built their lives on the land.

When the War Department seized the land, giving residents just weeks to vacate, families packed what they could and scattered across the hills of East Tennessee. But they left their history behind in the soil. Among the headstones resting undisturbed is a family plot belonging to the Rayfield family: the paternal ancestors of Dolly Parton.

The pioneers of Bethel Valley

Although the family name dominates the graveyard, the stories belong to the individual pioneers resting there. The roots of this specific branch trace directly back to George Washington "Old George" Rayfield and Cassandra Ann "Cassie" Moore. Both born in the mountains of Sevier County, Tennessee, the couple moved westward after being displaced by the National Park Service in the early 1900s to make room for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was authorized in 1926.

Upon settling in the Bethel Valley area, specifically the Park City community, the Rayfield family rooted themselves deeply in the community, becoming dedicated, lifelong members of the New Bethel Baptist Church. When Cassie died in April 1934, she was laid to rest in the heart of the active churchyard. Seven years later, and just two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, George died at age 86 and was buried right beside her.

They were among the final local citizens laid to rest by the congregation before their valley changed forever.

Less than a year after George's burial, the U.S. government invoked eminent domain to seize nearly 60,000 acres of land to build the top-secret Manhattan Project. When the Army arrived in late 1942, it swiftly demolished entire settlements, homesteads, and family structures to construct the secret facilities that would help produce the world's first atomic weapons.

New Bethel Baptist Church was originally slated for demolition, too, but those plans changed when the Manhattan Project began using the church as a meeting place, ultimately sparing it. The church and its cemetery remain today as rare reminders of the communities that called the area home before the Manhattan Project.

Sharing the protected family grave plot with George and Cassie are three of their 12 children - Josie Huskey, Texas Plemmons, and Thomas "Tom" Rayfield. Steps away rests a tiny marker for infant James E. Rayfield, who was born in 1940 to James Rayfield and died that same year, a quiet testament to the tenuous health conditions of the time. Two other Rayfield children are buried at the New Hope Cemetery.

From Bethel Valley to the Smoky Mountains

Although George and Cassie passed away before their legendary great-granddaughter was born, their memories and traditions weren't lost.

Four-year-old Dolly Parton was living with her parents and five of her siblings in a two-room Sevier County cabin, and her paternal grandparents lived right next door. Although Dolly's paternal grandmother, Bessie Rayfield Parton, didn't make the move to Park City with her parents, Bessie still carried the family's stories with her and passed them down to the next generation.

This immediate, daily connection meant Dolly didn't inherit her rich Appalachian heritage from historical texts or distant folklore; she lived it. The songs, the front-porch storytelling, and the deep-rooted mountain faith that defined her global career were passed directly down from ancestors who once walked the fields of Bethel Valley.

The sacrifice behind the history

The Rayfields' story is also a reminder of the sacrifice made by the families of the era. In the span of a few decades, the family was displaced twice, by the national park and the Manhattan Project.

The places they once called home went on to become part of two defining chapters in East Tennessee history: one preserving a landscape treasured by generations and the other helping usher in the atomic age and laying the foundation for decades of scientific discovery. Neither story can be told without remembering the families who gave up their homes, land, and communities to make both possible.

Guarding the homestead today

Dolly Parton's sprawling Appalachian family tree extends across generations and throughout East Tennessee. Among those branches is ORNL Fire Chief Daron Long, Parton's third cousin, who has a unique connection to the family's history.

Daron's daily responsibilities involve commanding emergency services and protecting the ORNL campus. Every day he goes to work, he and his team are actively watching over the top-secret soil where his cousin and Dolly's great-grandparents, George and Cassie, rest in peace. Fifty-nine thousand acres were seized, communities were erased, and an atomic birthplace was built, but decades later, a member of the Rayfield bloodline is still standing watch over the valley.

In a March 2026 interview with Knox News, Dolly Parton said, "Never forget who you are. Never forget where you came from. And always, kind of, go back home. You can always go back home in your heart and in your mind."

For Parton, those roots reach back to Bethel Valley. Today, the fields her great-grandparents once tended sit behind laboratory gates, along with the churchyard where members of the Rayfield family still rest. And through Daron, the family's connection to this land continues today.

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. -Katelyn Ward