Dolly Parton, who grew up in poverty in the mountains of East Tennessee and rose to become the “Queen of Country” with a personality as big as her signature blond hairdo and rhinestone-encrusted outfits, has died. She was 80 years old.
Parton’s death was announced in a video message from her family on her social media pages.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” Bryan Seaver, Parton’s nephew, said in the video. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment, but haven’t truly felt it until now. It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness.”
Seaver continued, “Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by [her husband] Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens.”
Parton had many hits during her 60 year career, whith classics including “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5” and “Coat of Many Colors.” Her 49 studio albums earned 25 No. 1 hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, the most of any female country artist.
During her music career she earned 11 Grammy Awards (including Lifetime Achievement recognition), and sahe also made starred in movies and made many cameo appearances in films including her 1980 debut “9 to 5,” with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with Burt Reynolds (1982) and “Steel Magnolias” with Sally Field and Shirley MacLaine (1989).
“She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history,” Seaver said. “My family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly, but so have you. She has always been on your television, your record player, your CD, and on your phone playlist, becoming an extended part of your family, whether you liked it or not.”
Parton requested to be laid to rest “in a beautiful bed of plush cotton, because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.”
Parton’s songwriting was something that was very personal, and affected Southern upbringing. She released more than 200 singlers since her 1959 chart debut with “Puppy Love.”
Most fans know that Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You,” which landed Parton at #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs in 1974 and again in 1984 after she rerecorded it for “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” soundtrack before a Whitney Houston revival in the 1990s, her contribution to Tina Turner’s solo career is less heralded.
Turner’s 1974 debut album, “Tina Turns the Country On!,” where Parton contributed the piano ballad, “There’ll Always Be Music.”
Parton was also a buisinesswoman who built a massive estimated $650 million business empire spanning publishing, tourism, consumer goods and entertainment.
“I try to do as much good as I can in the area that I’ve been confined to, and if I’m a light, I hope so, because I ask God to let me shine. Let me do and say things that would be uplifting,” Parton told Knox News in 2023.
Parton’s professional accolades throughout her legendary career included not only Grammys, but an Emmy Award in 2021 for “Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square,” a pair of Academy Award nominations, a Tony nomination, 13 Academy of Country Music Awards and 10 Country Music Awards.
Her husband, Carl Dean, passed away on march 3, 2025, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. They met in 1964, outside a laundromat in Nashville, when Dolly was 18 and Carl 22. Their romance lasted over 60 years, though Dean remained very reclusive.
Dolly had many philanthropic projects, Parton’s Imagination Library was one of her proudest. The book gifting program mails free books to children from birth to age 5, regardless of their family’s income.
Though Parton had no children, she became a mother figure to children around the world. The program has given nearly 200 million books to children worldwide since its launch in 1995.
She will be missed by many, but her legacy will definitely live on.
