Dolly Parton, who grew up in a one-room cabin, built an iconic music career and business empire and went on to become outspoken on gay rights and the trans community, has died, her nephew confirmed today (Aug. 25) on social media. She was 80.
Only months ago, Parton lamented that she still had so much she wanted to do. In recent days, reports circulated that she was in declining health.
Today, nephew Brin Seaver, confirmed her death, but did not provide a cause.
“My name is Brin 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,” he said in an instagram video.
“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 until now.”
“It is an honor, an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness. But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly. 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 to meet her in the heavens,” he posted.
“Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly — Aunt, Granny, Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you.”
Parton had been struggling with her health since the death of husband, Carl Dean in March a year ago.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl. You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this,” she said.
Parton was born in 1946 in rural Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). Her father was a sharecropper who eventually owned a small farm. She credited her mother for her interest in music.
Parton often recounted how her family was “dirt poor.” Many of her experiences growing up, ultimately found their way into her music. She also outlined her family’s poverty in her early songs “Coat of Many Colors” and “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).”
Before that, she sang mostly in church, led by her grandfather, Pastor Jake Robert Owens. But by the time she was 10, Parton was already fashioning the roots of her musical career.
She sang on local radio and television programs in East Tennessee at 10 and recorded her first single, “Puppy Love” at 13. That led to an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry. She met Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to pursue a career in music.
After graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, Parton wasted no time moving to Nashville, then the burgeoning capital of country music.
Whether through fate, or good fortune, she met the first man who would be influential in her life and career, Carl Thomas Dean As the story goes, they met outside a Nasville laundromat while Dolly was waiting for her clothes to dry. The married in 1966 and were together until his death.
A year later, in 1967, Parton’s big break came when country star Porter Wagoner asked her to appear on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” a nationally syndicated television program. She also joined him on tour.
But her music career and life after that were all her own.
Over six decades, Parton became the best-selling female country music artist of all time. She sold more than 160 million albums worldwide. Her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly, followed in 1967 after Wagoner helped engineer a record deal for her.
She scored a No. 1 country music hit with “Joshua,” in 1971 and her smash hit “Jolene,” two years later hit No. 1 on the country charts and also charted on Billboard’s Hot 100, which tracks singles, marking her first foray as a cross-over artist.
Beside performing, Parton was a crack songwriter. She partnered with uncle Bill Owens, and wrote a string of charting singles, including two Top 10 hits, “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” and “The Company You Keep” (1966). She also wrote Skeeter Davis’s number 11 hit “Fuel to the Flame” (1967).
Perhaps her biggest songwriting credit is for “I Will Always Love You,” which became a mega-hit after Whitney Houston sang it for the 1992 movie “The Bodyguard.”
Her song “Here You Come Again,” in 1977 became her first million-seller, topping the country album chart and reaching number 20 on the pop chart. She established a strong pop music fan base and by the early 1980s, her albums were all crafted for pop-crossover success and later blue grass.
Firmly entrenched in the firmament of country stars, and making inroads as a pop artist, Parton began branching out into acting and business.
Her big screen debut came in the 1980 when she co-starred in the movie “9-to-5,” with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. She sang the movie’s theme song, which became her first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
She followed up costarring in 1982 hit, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with Burt Reynolds. Parton also starred in 1984’s “Rhinestone” with Sylvester Stallone, and “Steel Magnolias,” with Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis.”
Awards followed: 11 Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, an Emmy, and two Academy Award nominations. She also wrote the score for the Broadway adaptation of 9-to -5, and was nominated for a Tony Award.
Another highlight of her career were her business ventures. She was a co-owner of The Dollywood Company, which operates the theme park Dollywood, a dinner theater, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, the waterpark Dollywood’s Splash Country and the Dream More Resort and Spa, all in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., in the hills where she grew up.
With 3.1 million visitors in 2024, Dollywood is among the 20 most popular theme park in the United States, and the fifth most popular theme park that operates seasonally.
She became heavily involved in philanthropy, notably her Imagination Library, which mails one book a month to children from birth until kindergarten. She was inspired in part by her father, who never learned to read or write, but whom she called one of the “smartest men I know.”
The Dollywood Foundation, funded from Parton’s profits, has brought jobs and tax revenues to a previously depressed region. Parton has also worked to raise money for other causes, including the American Red Cross and HIV/AIDS-related charities.
Parton became a caricature of herself through rounds of plastic surgery and made no apologies for it. She was a Hollywood level beauty starting out in her career and was determined to maintain her hourglass figure and dimpled contenance as she aged. She became know for big platinum blonde hair, big breasts and a tiny waist.
In the 2000s, Parton continued with her singing career and became heavily involved in collaborations and promoting young artists.
Parton’s first rock album, “Rockstar,” debuted in Nov. 2023. The lead single “World on Fire” released in May, hit No.1. Beatle Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Sting, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus and Lizzo, were featured artists. It became Parton’s highest-charting solo studio album hitting No. 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart and No. 1 on the Country and Rock Albums charts.
Parton also performed with Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry and Gloria Estefan. The official music video shows Parton, Carlisle, Lauper and Estefan performing while wearing football jerseys similar to the ones worn by the women in the film, “80 for Brady.”
Parton also performed on on Sabrina Carpenter’s song “Please Please Please” on the deluxe edition of her album “Short n’ Sweet” and its music video. Parton also performed frequently with Miley Cyrus, whom she served as her godmother.
Parton was set to return to Las Vegas over Christmas, 2025 for a residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace — her first extended run in the city in more than 30 years. But in September, she announced that the run was being postponed due to “health challenges,” according to People magazine.
“As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures. As I joked with them, it must be time for my 100,000 check-up, although it’s not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!,” she said in a statement shared to Instagram.
“In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see. You pay good money to see me perform, and I want to be at my best for you.”
She rescheduled her residency to begin this past May, but again had to call off her performances, although she said she was “responding really well to meds and treatments” and “improving every day.”
Parton suffered from a number of health issues over the years, including recurring kidney stones and infections. immune and digestive issues, endometriosis and stress from the death of her husband, who suffered from Alzheimer’s among other long-term undisclosed illnesses.
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Keith Girard has four decades of experience as an award-winning reporter, editor-in-chief, and senior media executive. Keith’s career began in Washington, D.C., where he was a reporter for The Washington Post and a contributing editor for Regardie’s and Washingtonian magazines. He also worked as a writer/producer in CNN’s Washington Bureau and has written non-fiction books on the U.S. Marines in the Gulf War and Donald Trump and two novels, “The Heidelberg Conundrum” and “The Curse of Northam Bay.”