Dolly Parton, the country music legend, actress, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and beloved American icon, died Tuesday at the age of 80.
Parton’s Passing
TMZ reported Parton was admitted to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville early Friday while dealing with kidney and autoimmune issues. People magazine confirmed she was hospitalized four days before her death, and her reps announced confirmed she passed surrounded by loved ones after a brief battle with cancer.
Her nephew and longtime head of security, Bryan Seaver, announced her death in a video shared through Parton’s social media accounts. “Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus. Surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,” he shared.
“Dolly called me and said she wants 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,” Seaver added.
Parton faced a series of health issues during the final months of her life, canceling a planned Las Vegas residency and, earlier this month, pulling out of a Dollywood appearance on her doctor’s orders. The singer told People just days before her death that she was still healing but working.
The health concerns followed the death of her beloved husband, Carl Dean, in March of last year. The famously private couple were married for nearly 59 years and never had children.
An Illustrious Career
Born in a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee, Parton was the fourth of 12 children raised by a sharecropper father and homemaker mother. That childhood remained at the heart of her life and music throughout her more than six decades in entertainment, inspiring songs including “Coat of Many Colors” as she went on to write classics like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Parton sold more than 100 million records worldwide, winning 11 Grammys and racking up 25 number one songs on Billboard’s country chart, according to the Recording Academy. One of the best-selling artists of all time, she was inducted into both the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.
Also a shrewd businesswoman, Parton retained tight control of her music. She famously refused to surrender half the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You” when Elvis Presley wanted to record it, and that decision later earned Parton millions when Whitney Houston’s version became a worldwide pop phenomenon.
Her talents eventually carried her to the silver screen with unforgettable roles in 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, and Parton’s entertainment empire extending to the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
A Lasting Legacy
Through it all, Parton never took herself too seriously and won over generations with her warmth, quick wit, and willingness to make herself the punchline. One of her most iconic lines: “It’s amazing how much it costs to make a person look so cheap.”
President Trump honored Parton on social media as one of the greatest country singers ever and ordered flags lowered to half-staff nationwide for one week. “There has never been anyone like her, and never will,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Parton’s legacy stretches well beyond music and entertainment. Inspired by her father who never learned to read or write, Dolly founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to mail children free books of their own. In a letter to children graduating from the program, she encouraged them to carry forward the same optimism that defined her life.
“Dream big dreams; learn everything you can learn; and care for all those who care for you. You do all of those things and you can be anyone you want to be,” she wrote.
She will be missed.
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