The world has lost one of its brightest stars, with country music legend Dolly Parton dying at the age of 80.
The singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist died peacefully in Nashville on Tuesday, August 25, her family confirmed, bringing to an end an extraordinary seven-decade career that took a girl from a poor family in the Tennessee mountains to the very pinnacle of global entertainment.
Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver announced the heartbreaking news in a video shared on behalf of the Parton and Owens families, fulfilling a request his aunt had made of him years earlier.
“It is an honour, an honour that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness,” Seaver said.
“But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly.”
In a particularly touching tribute, Seaver described his aunt as someone who had opened doors not only for her own family, but for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers around the world.
“By her example, we believed that anything is possible,” he said.
“She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”
Parton had been experiencing health problems in recent months and had cancelled a number of appearances and performances. Just days before her death, she spoke publicly about her health, revealing she had neglected some of her own medical issues while caring for her beloved husband Carl Dean.
Dean, whom Parton married in 1966, died in March last year after almost six decades of marriage.
Despite her health struggles, Parton remained characteristically optimistic about the future, saying only days ago that she was still working and still had “so many things” she wanted to achieve.
Born Dolly Rebecca Parton in rural Tennessee in 1946, she grew up as one of 12 children in a family with little money but plenty of music.
She began singing in church as a child and moved to Nashville the day after graduating from high school, eventually finding fame alongside Porter Wagoner before establishing herself as one of country music’s greatest solo artists and songwriters.
Her catalogue became part of the soundtrack to generations.
Jolene, Coat of Many Colors, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You were among the songs that transformed Parton from a country star into an international cultural icon.
I Will Always Love You, originally written as Parton’s farewell to Wagoner, would later find an entirely new audience when Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard.
Parton also proved herself far bigger than the country charts.
She starred alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the hugely successful 1980 comedy 9 to 5, before appearing in films including The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias. Over her career she sold more than 100 million records and collected 11 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Yet for all the rhinestones, towering hair, quick wit and unmistakable voice, Parton’s generosity became almost as famous as her music.
Her Imagination Library, founded in 1995 in honour of her father, has distributed hundreds of millions of free books to young children, while Parton also donated to disaster relief, education and medical research, including helping fund research that contributed to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Her family said Parton would be remembered not simply for her extraordinary body of work, but for the warmth and kindness that made millions of people feel as though they knew her.
A small private service will be held for immediate family, with fans encouraged to honour Parton by supporting her Imagination Library.
Perhaps the most fitting farewell came from Seaver, who recalled one final request from his aunt that managed, somehow, to sound unmistakably like Dolly.
After a lifetime spent dressed in heavy rhinestones, she told him, she wanted to be laid to rest in a comfortable bed of soft cotton.
And his final words to her echoed the title of the song she wrote more than half a century ago – and which ultimately became one of the most famous love songs in history.
“She will always love you.”
Images: Instagram
