{"id":329686,"date":"2026-08-25T23:36:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329686\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T23:36:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T23:36:32","slug":"country-music-icon-dolly-parton-dead-at-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/329686\/","title":{"rendered":"Country music icon Dolly Parton dead at 80"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolly Parton \u2013 the rhinestone-loving, self-proclaimed \u201ccheap\u201d country queen who left an indelible mark on country music with hits like \u201cJolene\u201d and \u201cCoat of Many Colors\u201d \u2013 has died. She was 80 years old<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dolly, who raised herself from the backwoods of Tennessee into the hearts of Americans of all social and political stripes, passed \u201cpeacefully\u201d Tuesday while surrounded by loved ones, her heartbroken family announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She made hundreds of millions off her music and Hollywood career, but gave as good as she got \u2014 funding the Dollywood amusement park in her home county to bring in tourist dollars and jobs, donating more than 300 million books to kids all over the world, and funding critical medical research \u2014 including one of the first COVID-19 vaccines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beloved country music singer Dolly Parton has passed away at the age of 80, her family announced. Miller Mobley\/NBC via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly, but so have you,\u201d Dolly\u2019s nephew, Bryan Seaver, said in the moving message posted across social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Seaver\u2019s message captured Dolly well \u2014 for seven decades her huge and trilling voice, along with her enormous hairdos and bodacious assets, were constants across radio and television with chart-topping tunes like \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d \u2014 covered to even greater success by Whitney Houston \u2014 and blockbuster movies like \u201c9 to 5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolly was also a rare icon who avoided the pitfalls of fame across a blazing career, instead building a devoted following from all walks of life with an attitude of love and humor towards the world around her.<\/p>\n

Parton was reportedly admitted into Vanderbilt University Medical Center Friday in Nashville for autoimmune and kidney problems. Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Exactly what the country crooner died of remains unclear, but she was reportedly admitted on Friday to Nashville\u2019s Vanderbilt University Medical Center for autoimmune and kidney problems, TMZ reported.<\/p>\n

The American and Tennessee flags at half-staff in tribute to Dolly Parton at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville on Aug. 25, 2026. Ray Di Pietro\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

A vase of flowers getting placed at Parton\u2019s plaque at the Country Music Hall of Fame. AP Photo\/George Walker IV<\/p>\n

Flowers left by fans on Parton\u2019s star at the Walk of Fame Park in Nashville on Tuesday. AP Photo\/George Walker IV<\/p>\n

Fans paying respect to Parton at a statue of the late singer in her hometown of Sevierville, Tenn. on Tuesday. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Dolly also told PEOPLE the same day that she was \u201cdealing with some health issues,\u201d something she repeated in various interviews over the last year after suddenly cancelling several appearances and performances.<\/p>\n

She then passed at her home outside Nashville on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Follow the latest news on the passing of country music legend Dolly Parton:<\/p>\n

Those health issues appeared to arise following the March 2025 death of her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean \u2014 with Dolly saying in recent months that she hadn\u2019t given her own health adequate attention while caring for him.<\/p>\n

But Seaver assured Dolly\u2019s fans that she met death with the same bright attitude she followed in life \u2013 sharing how she called him to say she was ready to \u201crest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton\u201d after \u201ca life wearing heavy rhinestones.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Parton pictured as a young girl in 1955. Michael Ochs Archives<\/p>\n

Parton performing during a taping of \u201cThe Porter Wagoner Show\u201d in Nashville on Sept. 2, 1970. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sadness lays with us, not with Dolly,\u201d Seaver said. \u201cDolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent,\u201d he added. \u201cBy her example we believed that anything was possible. She never saw a door she couldn\u2019t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.\u201d<\/p>\n

That history started in a one-room cabin in the Appalachian countryside east of Knoxville, where Dolly was born in 1946 among 12 children of farming parents.<\/p>\n

Country singer Dolly Parton poses for a portrait session in 1978 in Los Angeles, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Parton performing at Harrah\u2019s Club in Lake Tahoe, Nevada in 1980. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Parton seen at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge in 1993. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The huge family scraped by \u201cdirt poor\u201d and without running water, Dolly would tell, but their home was always filled with the music her parents played on the instruments they taught their kids.<\/p>\n

Her mother particularly kindled Dolly\u2019s burgeoning talent, encouraging her to write songs at age 5.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how old Dolly was when she wrote her first \u2014 \u201cLittle Tiny Tassel Top\u201d \u2013 and by 10 years old she was singing and playing guitar on local radio shows, and at just 13 she appeared for the first time on the legendary live Grand Ole Opry radio show in Nashville.<\/p>\n

Parton and Lily Tomlin on the set of \u201c9 to 5\u201d in 1979. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Opry is where she met the likes of Johnny Cash and Porter Wagoner, two of country music\u2019s biggest stars who helped launch her career when she moved to Nashville after high school.<\/p>\n

She ended up singing regularly alongside Wagoner on \u201cThe Porter Wagoner Show,\u201d with her flashy looks and one-of-a-kind voice turning her into a household name for viewers of the nationally syndicated variety show.<\/p>\n

Parton with \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d co-stars Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Julia Roberts and Daryl Hannah at the 1989 premiere of the film. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Dolly and Porter\u2019s dueting voices even ended up singing on the moon \u2014 with the pair belting their hearts out in a series of recordings for Apollo 16\u2019s country-loving astronaut Charlie Duke, who took the tapes along for his 1972 journey across deep space.<\/p>\n

But Dolly wasn\u2019t satisfied to be a side-act for the superstar Wagoner \u2013 she had visions of a solo career, and wrote him the song \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d to explain why she needed to break up their musical duo.<\/p>\n

Parton performing with Miley Cyrus at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Getty Images for The Recording Academy<\/p>\n

\u201cI went home and wrote that song, took it back the next morning, and said, \u2018Sit down, I need you to hear something.\u2019 So I sang it, and he was crying,\u201d Dolly told the Bobby Bones show in 2017.<\/p>\n

Armed with that song Dolly poured herself into her solo work and scored a massive hit with her next album, \u201cJolene,\u201d with its singles topping the charts.<\/p>\n

Despite those successes Dolly drove herself hard \u2014 sometimes sleeping in cars and bathing in gas station sinks as she raced across the country from gig to gig for her growing fanbase.<\/p>\n

Parton performing at the halftime show of the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game on Nov. 23, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bedroom was the backseat,\u201d Dolly said during a 2018 appearance on \u201cShine on With Reese.\u201d \u201cI\u2019d wash my hair in the filling station bathrooms and put makeup on in the side mirror of the car, and that was just how you did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 1980 she\u2019d become a bona fide American mega-star, with her bouffant hair and gaudy makeup pairing perfectly with the beaming smile she wore at every appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt costs a lot of money to look this cheap,\u201d Dolly would famously joke, even once saying she modeled her looks on \u201cthe town tramp\u201d when she was growing up.<\/p>\n

Parton blowing kisses to fans at one of her final public appearances at Dollywood on March 13, 2026. USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

It was 1980 when she made her first leap to the big screen, appearing alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in \u201c9 to 5\u201d \u2013 which she wrote the hit theme song for \u2013 a comedy about jilted secretaries who plot vengeance on their sexist boss.<\/p>\n

The movie was a smash success and helped turn Dolly into an icon for working women, a role solidified when she appeared in 1989\u2019s \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d as one of a group of fiercely independent women.<\/p>\n

Being a role model for those in need soon became one of the things Dolly was best at and most known for.<\/p>\n

In 1995 she founded the Imagination Library, a charity which has donated more than 300 million books to young children over the years.<\/p>\n

She also opened the Dollywood amusement park down the road from her hometown, with the attraction becoming the largest employer in the surrounding Sevier County and pumping at least $1.8 billion into the local economy annually.<\/p>\n

And she always managed to stay effortlessly relevant, notably pairing up with young popstars like her goddaughter Miley Cyrus over the years and Sabrina Carpenter in 2024.<\/p>\n

Her awards \u2013 11 Grammys, an Emmy, and honors from the Kennedy Center and the National Medal of Arts \u2013 are footnotes on her sprawling career, one which touched the hearts of people everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cDolly was a farmer just like her daddy,\u201d Dolly\u2019s family said in their statement. \u201cHe farmed the soil, she farmed songs and happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

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