Staff Reports
Singer-songwriter Dolly Parton died on Aug. 25. She was 80 years old.
Her family didn’t release a cause of death, but they did say she “died peacefully today in Nashville.”
The announcement came on her official Instagram, with a video from her nephew Bryan Seaver on behalf of the Parton family.
“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” Seaver said in the video. “As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me, I have imagined the heaviness of this moment but haven’t truly felt it until now.”
Parton’s team confirmed in a statement to CBS News and People that the star had died from cancer. People and TMZ reported that she was admitted to a Nashville hospital Aug. 21.
Almost immediately after news of Parton’s death was made public, reaction began pouring in from fans and friends.
“So many evil people in this world and we had to lose a pure heart like Dolly Parton,” Miley Cyrus, Parton’s goddaughter, wrote in a post on X. “Devastating day for humanity.”
In a post to Truth Social, President Donald Trump called for flags throughout the U.S. to be lowered to half-staff for a week, starting at 6 pm Aug. 25.
“This is a true loss for millions of people,” Trump wrote. “There has never been anyone like her, and never will. Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you.”
Parton was born in East Tennessee on Jan. 18, 1946, becoming one of 12 children born to Avie Lee Caroline Owens and Robert Lee Parton, Sr. She would record the first of what would become many songs, “Puppy Love,” at the age of 11. By the time Parton had turned 13, she was performing at the Grand Ole Opry.
She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics such as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than one billion online streams. By the mid-1970s, she was a Nashville queen.
Parton was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included Dollywood, a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.
She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to children in Tennessee because her father, who quit school to work on the farm, struggled to learn to read.
When a deadly fire swept through the Smokies in 2016, she held an all-star telethon and set up a foundation that sent monthly checks to residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed.
She wrote books and memoirs, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy. She was selected for the Jean Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences in 2025.
With 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, Parton is the third-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
Parton is preceded in death by her mother and father, as well as several of her siblings.
According to a statement from her team, Parton’s immediate family will have “a small, private service.”
Her friends and family “are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media” by tagging her in posts or by leaving a message on her website. In lieu of flowers, Parton’s family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“Dolly opened doors, not just for me, but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible,” Seaver said in the Aug. 25 video. “May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you.”
