Dolly Parton revealed she invested $10m of Whitney Houston song royalties into Black Nashville neighbourhood

Parton made a huge amount of money from Houston’s popular cover

Dolly Parton has been praised after revealing how she spent her “I Will Always Love You” royalties on.

The singer wrote the song in 1973 but it wasn’t until Whitney Houston covered it for The Bodyguard in 1992 that it became a worldwide hit

In fact, the single became so successful that Parton made $10m (£7.1m) in royalties and, shortly after, she decided to invest the money into a Black neighbourhood in Nashville.

“I bought a property down in what was the Black area of town, and it was mostly just Black families and people that lived around there,” Parton told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live.

“And it was off the beaten path from 16th Avenue and I thought, ‘Well I am going to buy this place, the whole strip mall.’ And thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be,’ considering it was Whitney.”

Parton, who “spent the money on a complex”. called it “the house that Whitney built”.

“This is how you do #reparations,” playwright Bonnie Greer tweeted.

Dolly Parton invested her Whitney Houston royalties into a Black Nashville neighbourhood (Getty)

Twitter user @Plebeian_ added: “Dolly Parton is a national treasure,” with another stating: “She is what it means to be a star.” Others branded the country star an “idol”.