Dolly Parton, whose songs and screen roles made her a global entertainment star and whose philanthropy reached children, disaster survivors and medical researchers, has died. She was 80.
Parton’s family announced her death Tuesday, in a video posted to her official social media accounts. The family said she died peacefully in Nashville. No cause of death was disclosed.
Her nephew Bryan Seaver delivered the announcement on behalf of the Parton and Owens families.
“She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history,” Seaver said.
A small private service will be held for immediate family at Parton’s request. The family asked people wishing to honour her to donate to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library instead of sending flowers.
A message from the family of Dolly Parton. pic.twitter.com/9DNRgRx0uH
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) August 25, 2026
From rural Tennessee to international stardom
Parton was born Jan. 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tenn., the fourth of 12 children.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum said her uncle Bill Owens bought her a guitar and helped her secure a spot on a Knoxville television show by the time she was 10. She appeared at the Grand Ole Opry at 13 and moved to Nashville after graduating from high school in 1964.
After “Joshua” topped the country chart in 1971, Parton scored three more No. 1 singles in 1974: “Jolene,” “Love Is Like a Butterfly” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” as a farewell to Wagoner when she left his television show. Whitney Houston’s version became a No. 1 pop hit after appearing in the 1992 film The Bodyguard.
She starred with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the 1980 film 9 to 5. Its title song won two Grammy Awards and earned Parton an Academy Award nomination. She received another Oscar nomination for “Travelin’ Thru” from Transamerica.
The Recording Academy lists 10 competitive Grammy wins and 55 nominations. Parton also received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
She entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences credited her with 49 studio albums and more than 100 million records sold.
Six days before her death, her official website announced 82 new sales certifications across 14 countries. “Jolene” and “9 to 5” received diamond certifications in Canada, while “I Will Always Love You” was certified triple platinum.
Business and philanthropy
Parton and the Herschend family transformed the former Silver Dollar City Tennessee into Dollywood, which opened in Pigeon Forge in 1986.
She established the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 and created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995 after being inspired by her father’s inability to read or write.
As of June 2026, the program had distributed more than 325 million books and was mailing more than 3.5 million each month in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
Canada became its first international partner in 2006. The program has since delivered more than five million books to Canadian children and was mailing about 60,000 books a month across the country in 2026.
The Dollywood Foundation said its My People Fund distributed more than $12 million following the 2016 Sevier County wildfires.
Parton also donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020 for COVID-19 research. Vanderbilt said the money supported critical early work associated with the Moderna vaccine.
“Dolly Parton’s legacy is not celebrity, but humanity,” Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said in a tribute.
