Dolly Parton dies at 80

Dolly Parton, the country music giant whose songs, rhinestones and mountain-born wit carried her from rural Tennessee poverty to global stardom, has died at 80, her family announced Tuesday.

Her nephew Bryan Seaver, who also served as her head of security, announced her death in a prerecorded video posted to social media. Representatives said Parton “died peacefully” in Nashville, Tennessee, on Aug. 25, 2026, NPR reported. No cause of death was given.

“It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness, but sadness lies with us, not with Dolly,” Seaver said. “Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus.” In a separate family message, he said the announcement was something Parton had asked him to make years earlier.

Parton’s death followed public health concerns. In May, she canceled a Las Vegas show and said 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,” she said at the time, adding that her immune and digestive systems had gotten “all out of whack.” Days before her death, she told People she was still grieving her husband, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025, but was not ready to stop working.

Born Dolly Rebecca Parton on Jan. 19, 1946, she was the fourth of 12 children in a poor farming family near Sevierville, Tennessee. Her mother, Avie Lee, sang folk songs, and her father, Robert Lee Parton, could not read or write. Parton began singing in church as a child, performed on local radio and television, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry at 13, where she was introduced by Johnny Cash.

The day after graduating from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville. She first found success writing songs, including work with her uncle Bill Owens, before joining Porter Wagoner’s television show. After seven years as Wagoner’s duet partner, she left in 1974 to focus on her solo career.

That break produced some of her defining songs. “Jolene,” released in 1973, helped make her a household name. “I Will Always Love You,” written as a farewell to Wagoner, later became an international hit for Whitney Houston in 1992. Parton said she was proud that Houston transformed what she called her “sad little country song” into a power ballad.

Over more than six decades, Parton sold more than 100 million records, wrote more than 3,000 songs, released nearly 50 studio albums and earned dozens of top 10 country hits. Sources differ on her Grammy total, with NBC News reporting 11 wins and CBS News, NPR and the BBC reporting 10. CBS News reported she received 55 Grammy nominations.

Parton also crossed into film and television, making her major movie debut in “9 to 5” with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She wrote and performed the title song, which became an anthem. She later starred in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias.”

Her image was as famous as her voice: blond wigs, high heels, tight costumes and jokes delivered before anyone else could make them. “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” she once said. She said her look was inspired by a local woman others dismissed as the “town tramp,” but whom young Parton thought was beautiful.

Parton built a business empire that included Dollywood, the theme park she opened in 1986 in the Smoky Mountains. She also became known for philanthropy, including the Dollywood Foundation, the Imagination Library book program and a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University research that helped lead to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. In 2022, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez gave her a $100 million Courage and Civility award for charities of her choice.

Parton and Dean married in 1966 and remained together until his death. They had no children. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” Parton said in 2025.

Through songs such as “Coat of Many Colors,” “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” Parton turned her roots into an enduring public identity. “Never ignore your roots — your home or your hair,” she once said.