NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WMDJ) — Dolly Parton, the East Tennessee singer-songwriter who rose from a childhood in the Smoky Mountains to become one of the world's most recognizable entertainers, has died at the age of 80.
Parton's family announced her death Tuesday. Her nephew Bryan Seaver made the announcement on social media. You can see the announcement here.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born Jan. 19, 1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee, and grew up in nearby Locust Ridge. She was the fourth of 12 children born to Robert Lee and Avie Lee Parton and spent her childhood in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains. The family had little money, but music was a constant part of life. Her mother sang traditional songs, while several members of the Parton family played music.
Parton began writing songs as a young child and was performing on Knoxville radio and television while still in elementary school. At 13, she performed at the Grand Ole Opry. The day after graduating from high school in 1964, she left East Tennessee for Nashville to pursue music full time.
Her national breakthrough came in 1967, when she joined The Porter Wagoner Show and began a successful recording and touring partnership with Wagoner. Parton eventually left the show to build a solo career, writing “I Will Always Love You” as a farewell to Wagoner. The song became a No. 1 country hit for Parton and, nearly two decades later, became an international smash for Whitney Houston.
Parton's catalog also included “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5,” “Here You Come Again” and dozens of other hits. Twenty-five of her songs reached No. 1 on Billboard's country chart, and she sold more than 100 million records worldwide. But Parton considered herself a songwriter first. She is estimated to have written around 3,000 songs during her lifetime, recording about 450 of them herself.
Her career stretched far beyond country music. Parton starred in films including 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias and received two Academy Award nominations for songwriting. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. She earned 10 competitive Grammy Awards and also received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Parton also became one of the entertainment industry's most successful businesswomen. In 1986, she partnered with the Herschend family to transform Silver Dollar City in Pigeon Forge into Dollywood. The park went on to become Tennessee's most-visited tourist attraction and grew into a larger resort operation that includes Dollywood's Splash Country, hotels and other entertainment properties. Parton was also involved in dinner attractions and film and television production during her business career.
Some of Parton's most lasting work, however, took place away from the stage.
She founded Dolly Parton's Imagination Library in Sevier County in 1995 in honor of her father, who was unable to read or write. The program mails free books each month to children from birth to age 5 and eventually expanded across the United States and into Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland. By the end of 2025, the program had given away more than 300 million books. In Kentucky alone, more than 6 million books have been delivered through the program, which currently serves more than 132,000 Kentucky children.
Following the devastating 2016 wildfires in Sevier County, Parton established the My People Fund to help families who lost their homes. The effort raised more than $9 million and provided direct payments to hundreds of families. She also donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for COVID-19 research in 2020, money that helped support research connected to development of the Moderna vaccine.
Parton's husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025 at the age of 82. The two met outside a Nashville laundromat on the day Parton arrived in the city in 1964 and married in 1966. Dean remained almost entirely outside the public spotlight during their nearly six decades together. The couple had no children.
President Donald Trump also ordered American flags lowered to half-staff for one week beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Parton’s honor, calling her death “a true loss for millions of people.”
At Parton’s request, a small and private service will be held for the immediate family. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to The Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
From a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee, Parton built a career that ultimately touched music, movies, tourism, business and philanthropy around the world. All while keeping much of that work tied to the Appalachian home where her story began.
