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DOLLY Parton, the country music icon whose journey from a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee to global superstardom inspired generations, has died at the age of 80.
Her family announced her death on Tuesday, with her team confirming that the “Queen of Country” had faced a brief battle with cancer and died surrounded by loved ones.
Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced the news in a video posted on her Instagram account.
“My name is Brian Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I’m representing the Parton and Owens family today announcing the passing of my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, Sister, Sis and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next,” Seaver said.
He said Parton had prepared him for the responsibility of announcing her death years earlier.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality. 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 till now,” he added.
Seaver said his aunt had “lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by [her late husband] Carl, her parents, and countless others.”
“Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly — Aunt, Granny, Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you,” he said.
Parton’s team paid tribute to the singer’s extraordinary generosity and the impact she had made far beyond the entertainment world.
“She spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched,” the team said.
“Her unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet, yet she was always there to offer a helping hand. Dolly’s unconditional love for all people was the guiding force for her lasting impact.”
Tributes poured in from across the United States and around the world following news of her death, while President Donald Trump ordered American flags to be flown at half-mast nationwide for one week.
Parton’s death came after a period of health difficulties during which she was forced to cancel a Las Vegas show in May. She revealed at the time that she had been undergoing treatment for kidney stones for several years.
“Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee,” Parton said in a statement. “But seriously, my immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple three years, and they’re working real hard on rebuilding and strengthening those, and hopefully, I’ll be up to snuff again soon.”
Just days before her death, Parton had acknowledged that she was still grieving following the death of her husband of nearly six decades, Carl Dean, in March 2025, but insisted she had no intention of abandoning the work that had defined her life.
“Even though I’m still healin’,” Parton said. “I’m still workin’! You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner, and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
Over a career spanning more than 60 years, Parton sold more than 100 million records, won 11 Grammy Awards and established herself as one of the most successful and recognisable performers in the history of popular music.
Her talents extended far beyond country music. She conquered Hollywood with acclaimed appearances in films including “9 to 5”, for which she also wrote and performed the celebrated theme song, “Steel Magnolias” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”.
With her towering blond bouffant, flamboyant make-up and famously sharp wit, Parton transformed herself into one of the most distinctive figures in American popular culture.
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she once quipped.
Yet behind the humour and rhinestones was a formidable businesswoman who maintained creative control in the fiercely competitive and male-dominated music industry. Her entertainment empire included the hugely successful Dollywood theme park, while her philanthropic work through the Dollywood Foundation provided poverty relief and educational opportunities, particularly in her native East Tennessee.
Parton was also known for expressing her Christian faith while publicly defending the LGBTQ community, advocating marriage equality and speaking out against discrimination towards transgender people.
“I keep saying: If you’re the fine Christian that you think you are, why are you judging people,” she said in a 2017 interview. “That’s God’s job.”
In another typically humorous reflection on same-sex marriage, she said: “I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. They should suffer just like us heterosexuals.”
Born Dolly Rebecca Parton on Jan 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin near Sevierville, Tennessee, she was the fourth of 12 children in a family that endured deep poverty.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was unable to read or write and supplemented the family’s meagre income from their farm through construction work. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, ran the household and sang traditional Appalachian ballads, nurturing the daughter’s love of music.
Parton began performing in church and, by the age of 13, was appearing on local radio and television. She made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where she met Johnny Cash.
“Dolly Parton has one of the most distinctive voices in American pop music,” Berklee College of Music professor Katherine Dacey once said. “Her high soprano voice gets its distinctive character from her fast vibrato and vocal twang.”
The day after graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville, where she initially found success as a songwriter.
Her own hardscrabble childhood would later inspire some of her most enduring songs, including “Tennessee Homesick Blues” and “Coat of Many Colors”.
From those impoverished Appalachian beginnings, Parton built a career that made her one of the richest, most influential and most beloved women in entertainment.
But even at the height of her fame, she remained fiercely protective of her roots, her family and the ordinary people whose lives had shaped her songs.
Her death closes one of the most remarkable chapters in American popular culture — but the music, generosity, humour and warmth of the woman who taught the world to sing will continue to endure for generations.
Words can perhaps best be left with the message Parton herself had always sought to share: love one another, laugh often and never be ashamed to dream beyond the limits of where you began. - August 26, 2026
