She passed away peacefully after a short fight with cancer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, according to a representative.
She was admitted to the hospital on Friday after dealing with kidney and autoimmune problems.
One of her nephews, Bryan Seaver, made a video at her request that can be seen here.
"This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully understood it as a future reality," he said.
"As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the weight of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now."
Parton shared in September that she was postponing a series of Las Vegas concerts due to some health issues.
THR reported days later that she would miss the Governors Awards, where she was set to receive the prestigious Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in November, and she canceled her Las Vegas residency dates for September in May.In the past few months, she tried to stay strong and told her fans she was doing well.
Her husband of nearly 58 years, businessman Carl Dean, died at the age of 82 on March 3, 2025.
The country music legend grew up in a poor family living in a one-room mountain cabin with 11 brothers and sisters.
She went on to achieve worldwide fame with hit songs, movies, eye-catching costumes, and a unique sense of joy that few entertainers could match.
Some of her most famous songs were three songs she wrote herself — the sad, emotional "Jolene," the workplace protest song "9 to 5," and the gentle 1974 ballad "I Will Always Love You," which topped the Billboard Country chart in 1974.
This song was given a new life when Whitney Houston covered it for her 1992 movie The Bodyguard.It then topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-breaking 14 weeks.
"I Will Always Love You" remains the best-selling single by a female recording artist, earning more than $10 million in pure profit for Parton.
The Bodyguard originally included a different Parton song, but just as production was wrapping, Costner called her and asked to use "I Will Always Love You" instead.
Beyond giving permission, Parton knew nothing about what Costner, Houston, and producer David Foster had created in the studio.
One afternoon, while driving home from her Music Row office in Nashville, she heard something on the radio she couldn’t quite place.
"I thought, 'That sounds familiar,'" she told The Hollywood Reporter.
She recognized Houston’s voice and the first few words of the song, "If I should stay..."
"It was one of those things where you think, 'What is that?' And then all of sudden [Houston] started singing, 'I will always love you.' I just about wrecked the car."
Parton often praised Houston’s version.
"Look at what a grand song she made out of that simple, heartfelt song," she said."She took it worldwide and made it a household word.I will always be thankful to her for that."
Parton also performed "I Will Always Love You" in a movie — The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), in which she played Madame Mona opposite Burt Reynolds.
On the screen, she held her own and more with some of Hollywood’s top actors.
As the warm-hearted hairstylist Truvy Jones, she was the main character in the ensemble dramedy Steel Magnolias (1989) alongside Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, and rising star Julia Roberts.
Parton's biggest film was her first — 9 to 5, the 1980 workplace comedy in which she played the cheeky Doralee Rhodes, starring alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and, as their boss, Dabney Coleman.
While working on the film, Fonda and Tomlin thought their message about workplace exploitation, wage theft, and sexual harassment would be more powerful with three female leads who had different backgrounds and experiences.
They began searching for a co-star.
Fonda often told the story over the years about the night she "drove into town" to see Tomlin in a play called *Appearing Nightly*.
Afterward, she got into her car and "Dolly was singing."
"On my way home alone, I turned on the radio," she said during an episode of Netflix's *Tudum* podcast in March 2025.
"Suddenly, I pictured Dolly at a typewriter."
"She can't see her fingers, obviously," Fonda added, making a light comment about Parton's curvaceous figure, which was often showcased in a tight, beaded, one-of-a-kind outfit.
"She and Lily were friends," Fonda continued."It took me a year to convince them, but it worked out great.We had so much fun.Dolly had never acted in a movie before.She came the first day with the whole script memorized."
Parton wasn't worried about moving from music and TV, where she had been on the country western show The Porter Wagoner Show for years.
"On Ellen DeGeneres' show in 2006, Parton said, 'Lily and Jane were really popular at the time, and I thought, "What can I lose?" If it was a hit, I'd take the credit.
If it failed, I'd blame them.I was with great people.They helped me a lot.'"
She stayed close friends with her co-stars.
From left: Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin in the 1980 film "9 to 5." 20th Century Fox Film Corp./Courtesy Everett Collection
Parton wrote the movie's catchy theme song — which earned her her first Oscar nomination — while on set between takes.
She made a beat that sounded like a typewriter by tapping her long acrylic nails against each other.
"In 2020, on the Today show, Parton explained that she didn't have her guitar with her because she didn't want to get distracted.
So she used her nails instead."
"I would just tap my fingers, go back to the hotel at night, write down the lyrics, or get my guitar and start singing.
That's how it worked.I played my nails on the record just for fun."
The original recording credits listed, "Dolly Parton: Lead vocals and typewriter."
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee, in the Smoky Mountains.
She was the fourth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Owens and Robert Lee Parton, a sharecropper, tobacco farmer, and occasional construction worker.
Parton's mother often entertained her large family by telling stories and singing songs, some of which came to Appalachia from immigrants who brought music from their home countries in the British Isles.
The family later moved to a cabin on farmland in Locust Ridge.
(A replica of the home is on display at Dollywood, part of the 150-acre place she created and owned with Herschend Family Entertainment in Pigeon Forge.
The area also includes a waterpark, hotels, and historical sites, and was named Tripadvisor's "No.
1 U.S.theme park" in 2022 and 2023.Dollywood also recently won Traveler's Choice "Best of the Best Awards.")
Dolly Parton never avoided talking about her past, which she called "dirt poor." She used many of her childhood memories in her songs and her theme park, Dollywood.Songs like "In the Good Old Days (When Times Are Bad)" and "Coat of Many Colors" show her life growing up.In 1995, she started a book-giving charity called Imagination Library, giving millions of free books to kids.She did this to honor her father, who couldn't read or write.
At age 7, Dolly taught herself to play guitar.
The next year, her uncle Bill Owens, who was a musician and her lifelong mentor, gave her a real guitar.He also helped her write many early songs.
Dolly soon started performing on local radio and TV shows.
After making some recordings for small music labels, she got to perform at the Grand Ole Opry when she was just 13 years old.
In 1964, right after graduating from high school, Dolly moved to Nashville.
She signed with a publisher and kept writing songs with her uncle Bill Owens.They wrote hits for artists like Hank Williams Jr., Kitty Wells, and Bill Phillips, including "The Company You Keep" and "Put It Off Until Tomorrow."
At 19, Dolly signed with Monument Records, but things didn't go smoothly.
Her voice and personality were seen as perfect for pop music, but Dolly wanted to be a country singer.
Eventually, Monument gave her a chance with a song by Curly Putman, "Dumb Blonde," and her own song, "Something Fishy." Both were included on her first album, "Hello, I'm Dolly," released in 1967.
She caught the attention of country legend Roy Acuff, who signed her to appear on his TV show.
He also helped her with her music career, managing her and taking a share in her publishing company with Bill Owens, called Owe-Par.
Together, they had hits from their TV duets, like "The Last Thing on My Mind." Dolly's solo songs weren't doing well at first, but she started to gain popularity with "Coat of Many Colors" and "Touch Your Woman."
When she wrote "Jolene," which became one of her most famous songs and was loved by many musicians, she was ready to leave Roy Acuff.
She called their relationship "oil and water." But she wanted to part on a friendly note, so she wrote "I Will Always Love You" on the same day she wrote "Jolene." She sang it to Roy on her last appearance on his show in 1974.Roy stayed in her life for over a year, producing her records and making a final duet album called "Say Forever You'll Be Mine."
Dolly told Martha Stewart in 2024 that she didn't want to live under someone else's idea of who she was.
She felt she had her own identity and had to fight to keep it — and she's still doing that.
"Jolene" was one of Dolly's most cherished songs.
She had drawn inspiration from a real-life situation a few years earlier when she saw a bank teller flirting with her husband, Dean, whom she married in 1966.She told NPR in 2008 that it was a joke between them.She joked about the situation because she thought it was harmless.But she said the song "sounds like it was dreadful."
Dolly Parton in London in 1977.
Keystone/Getty Images
Even though she had written around 3,000 songs during her career, the person who won the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy never stopped performing "Jolene." Over the years, the song became famous with covers by The White Stripes, Miley Cyrus, and Kelly Clarkson.
In 2014, the song came back into the UK pop charts after Dolly Parton performed it for about 180,000 fans at the Glastonbury Festival.
Young fans knew every word of the song, showing how her popularity changed and grew over time—starting as a country star, then becoming an '80s movie actress, moving into TV and film production, and finally becoming one of the world's most loved pop culture figures.
Dr.
Tressie McMillan Cottom from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wrote that Parton gives people a break from the news cycle, explaining how her massive popularity has only continued to increase in recent years.
She was one of the few celebrities who went beyond the field that first made them famous, Cottom wrote, while never letting down her fans."It's now wrong to dislike her, let alone criticize her.By agreement, Dolly Parton is the one good thing in our empire's decline," she said.
Parton was very good at writing, creating a lifetime of funny one-liners, wise sayings, and self-mocking jokes.
Her witty remarks made her a favorite on talk shows and popular with concertgoers across generations.
"Funny thing is, everything Dolly says seems like a lesson," Foster said.
One of her most famous jokes was, "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap," which was about her dramatic makeup and hair that she said she copied from a town tramp when she was young because she thought she was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
"I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb — and I'm not blonde either," she said.
And, "People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair.
I don't know, I'm never there," which was a joke about her big wig collection.
After meeting Rhinestone co-star Sylvester Stallone, she lost about 40 pounds by following his diet for healthy eating and strong abs (he told her to avoid white bread and processed foods), changing from a curvy, big-figured woman to a more petite, curvy look — a look she kept for life.
"If I see something draggin', saggin' or baggin', I'll just go fix it," she loved to say.
Parton got some of her best reviews ever when she teamed up with friends Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt for their 1987 album Trio.
The trio, who had often covered each other’s songs, got an album of the year nomination, facing off against Prince, Michael Jackson, U2 and Whitney Houston.They won the best country performance duo or group award — one of Parton’s 10 Grammy wins from 55 career nominations — and later made a second album called Trio II in 1999.
She also had a long partnership with Kenny Rogers, starting in 1976.
They had a big No.1 song in 1983 called "Islands in the Stream," written by the Bee Gees.
Throughout much of her career, Parton was often behind the scenes in television.
With her longtime manager Sandy Gallin, she started Sandollar Productions, making shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spinoff Angel and the remake of Father of the Bride.
As a producer, she did a comedy special for Whoopi Goldberg, the 1989 documentary Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt, and lots of holiday movies, including fantasy stories like Dolly Parton’s A Smoky Mountain Christmas.
In 2019, she worked with Netflix on the anthology series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings, turning some of her favorite songs into standalone TV episodes, including "Jolene" with Kimberly Williams-Paisley, "Sugar Hill" with Timothy Busfield, and "These Old Bones" with Ginnifer Goodwin.
The following year, she also worked with Netflix on the Christmas on the Square, directed by Debbie Allen, which became a big hit during the pandemic.
She wrote 14 new songs and won an Emmy.
Over the years, she was often asked how she could do so much and never seemed tired.
"I've got so many irons in the fire sometimes I'm burning my own butt," she said on Adam Grant’s WorkLife podcast in 2022.
"I always wanted to be a star.I wanted my dreams to come true, and they did.So I have to keep them alive.Every day something new comes up, and I have to get in there and be with it.I can't just leave it as long as I'm living.I can't leave that in the hands of other people.I have to be on top of all of it to make sure that it's being done right."
The way I want it done.
Survivors include her siblings: Willadeene, Coy, Robert Jr., Stella, Cassie (who is Bryan Seaver’s mom), Freida, and Rachel.
She and Dean didn’t have any children together.
Parton said she had only a few regrets, and one of them was not getting to sing with Houston on “I Will Always Love You.” Houston passed away in 2012.
Parton told Andy Cohen in 2021, “I would’ve loved that.
But I don’t think I could’ve matched her.She would’ve out-sung me on that one for sure.”
She also thought about a chance she missed with Elvis Presley.
The King wanted to record “I Will Always Love You” right after it came out in 1974, and she was excited about the idea.
But when Presley’s manager, Col.
Tom Parker, asked for 50% ownership of the song’s publishing rights, as was usual for everything Elvis recorded, she refused.
She told BBC Radio in 2023, “I said, ‘This is the most important copyright in my whole publishing company, and I can’t do that.’”
In 2006, she said, “Other people were saying, ‘You’re nuts.
It’s Elvis Presley.I mean, hell, I’d give him all of it.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.Something in my heart says, “Don’t do that.”’”
Parton talked about how she cried all night after saying no to Parker.
She said, “I always wondered what it would sound like.
He would’ve killed it.But anyway, so he didn’t.Then when [Houston’s version] came out, I made enough money to buy Graceland.”
The musical based on her life is moving forward on Broadway as planned.
Previews start on December 7 at the St.James Theatre.She was a co-writer and listed as a lead producer on the project.
At her request, a small and private service will be held for her immediate family.Her fans and friends around the world are invited to honor her by sharing messages on social media, either by tagging @DollyParton or by leaving a message on her website.
Donations in her memory can be given to her Imagination Library.
In 2021, she said, “I look like a woman, but I think like a man.†She added, “In this world of business, that has helped me a lot.
Because by the time they think I don’t know what’s goin’ on, I then got the money and am gone.â€
