DOLLY PARTON DIED AT 80 AFTER BRIEF CANCER BATTLE
Dolly Parton died at 80, the country legend behind “9 to 5,” “Jolene” and Dollywood.
Her family announced the death of Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean on August 25, 2026. Her nephew Brian Seaver delivered the news in a video posted to her Instagram, NBC News reported.
“My name is Brian 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.
Seaver, who followed his father Larry as her head of security, said the announcement was something Parton asked him to make long ago. “This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said.
He said she “lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by [her late husband] Carl, her parents, and countless others.” He ended the video with: “Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly — Aunt, Granny, Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you.”
Team Dolly said in a statement that she “spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched.”
From a Tennessee cabin to Dollywood
Parton was born in a cabin near Sevierville, Tennessee. Her father, Robert Lee Parton, could not read or write. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, sang traditional Appalachian ballads.
She started out singing at church. As a teenager she was on local radio and television and made her Grand Ole Opry debut, where she met Johnny Cash.
The day after she graduated from Sevier County High School in 1964, she moved to Nashville. She wrote songs for other performers there before she broke through as a performer herself. Her first record, “Hello, I’m Dolly,” came out three years after she left school.
Porter Wagoner noticed that record and brought her into his shows. “Jolene” topped the country charts in 1974, and Parton later said it was inspired by a bank teller who flirted with her husband. Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” became a major hit.
Parton sold more than 100 million records and won 11 Grammy Awards. She acted in “9 to 5,” “Steel Magnolias” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” and she wrote and sang the “9 to 5” theme.
Dollywood, her theme park near her hometown, has roller coasters, a bald eagle sanctuary, music and crafts. She also launched the Dollywood Foundation for poverty relief and education programs in East Tennessee. Her Imagination Library mails free books to children, a cause rooted in her father’s illiteracy.
She gave $1 million to Vanderbilt University research that led to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. A Vanderbilt researcher who treated her after a 2013 car accident said her funding made the vaccine work move “10 times faster.”
Parton was also an outspoken supporter of LGBTQ people, marriage equality and transgender people. “I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. They should suffer just like us heterosexuals,” she told a British outlet.
Her final months and the tributes
In May 2026, Parton announced she was canceling a Las Vegas show. She said she had been treated for kidney stones for several years and joked, “Lord, they dig more stones out of me a year than the rock quarry in Rockwood, Tennessee.”
She added that her “immune system and my digestive system got all out of whack over the past couple three years,” and that they were working to rebuild and strengthen them.
In an interview with People, she said, “Even though I’m still healin’,” and, “I’m still workin’! You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner, and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
Her husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025. They married in 1966 and never had children. In July 2025, she said, “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”
After her death, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that she was “one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER.” He said he would lower U.S. flags for one week in her honor and wrote, “There has never been anyone like her, and never will.”
Taylor Swift said in a statement, “A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right.”
Parton’s team said she died after a brief battle with cancer, surrounded by loved ones, UPI reported.
