Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean (née Parton; January 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026) was an American musician, songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman. Dubbed the “Queen of Country”, she was one of the most honoured country performers in history. Parton received various accolades, including eleven Grammy Awards, three Emmy Awards and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, along with nominations for two Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.

Parton wrote her first song at the age of six, began performing regularly on television at the age of ten, and made her first recording at the age of 11. She became a professional songwriter at the age of 16 and, after writing hits for other artists, her debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly, was released in 1967, beginning a career spanning nearly 60 years and 49 studio albums.

Parton composed more than 3,000 songs, including “I Will Always Love You” (a two-time U.S. country chart-topper and an international hit for Whitney Houston that sold 40 million copies worldwide), “Jolene”, “Coat of Many Colours” and “9 to 5”. As an actress, she starred in 9 to 5 (1980) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), earning Golden Globe nominations for both, as well as Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992), and Joyful Noise (2012).

With estimated sales exceeding 100 million records, Parton is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Her music includes Recording Industry Association of America RIAA,-certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. Twenty-five of her singles reached number one on the Billboard country music charts, tied with Reba McEntire for the most by a female artist. She had 44 career top-10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over 40 years. Her 49th and final solo studio album, Rockstar (2023), became her highest-charting Billboard 200 album, peaking at number three.

Early life

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Centre, Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Caroline (née Owens; 1923–2003) and Robert Lee Parton Sr. (1921–2000). Her siblings are: Willadeene (born 1940), David Wilburn (1942–2024), Coy Denver (1943–2026), Robert Lee “Bobby” (born 1948), Stella Mae (born 1949), Cassie Nan (born 1951), Randle Huston “Randy” (1953–2021), Larry Gerald (1955–1955), twins Frieda Estelle (born 1957) and Floyd Estel (1957–2018), and Rachel Ann (born 1959). Parton’s middle name came from her maternal great-great-grandmother Rebecca (née Dunn) Whitted.

Parton’s father, known as “Lee”, worked in the mountains of East Tennessee, first as a sharecropper and later tending his own small tobacco farm and acreage. He also worked construction jobs to supplement the farm’s small income.

Despite her father’s illiteracy, Parton often said he was one of the smartest people she had ever known with regard to business and making a profit. Parton’s mother cared for their large family. Her 11 pregnancies (the tenth being twins) in 20 years made her a mother of 12 by age 35. Parton credited her musical abilities to her mother’s influence; often in poor health, she still managed to keep house and entertain her children with Great Smoky Mountain folklore and old ballads. With Welsh ancestry, Avie Lee knew many songs that immigrants from Europe brought to southern Appalachia. Avie Lee’s father, Jake Owens, was a Pentecostal preacher, and Parton and her siblings attended church regularly.

Parton long credited her father for her business sense and her mother’s family for her musical abilities. When she was a young girl, her family moved from the Pittman Centre, Tennessee area to a two‑room cabin and farm on nearby Locust Ridge. Most of her cherished childhood memories happened there. A replica of the Locust Ridge cabin is displayed at her namesake theme park Dollywood. The farm acreage and surrounding woodland inspired her to write the song “My Tennessee Mountain Home” in the 1970s.

Years after the farm was sold, Parton bought it back in the late 1980s. Her brother Bobby helped with building restoration and new construction. Parton said her family was “dirt poor”.[ Her father paid missionary Dr. Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her.[22] Later in life, Parton wrote a song about Dr. Thomas. She also outlined her family’s poverty in her early songs “Coat of Many Colours” and “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)”.

The Partons’ small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge was in a predominantly Pentecostal area located north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains. Music played an important role in Parton’s early life and she was brought up in the Church of God, in a congregation pastored by her grandfather, Jake Robert Owens.

Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six. At seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first real guitar. The Parton family was well-fed despite their poverty, and her 2024 cookbook, Good Lookin’ Cookin’ (co-written with her sister Rachel), recalls numerous family meals. After graduating from Sevier County High School in Sevierville, Tennessee, in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the next day.

The Dolly image

Her own appearance became the object of intense interest. Initially embarrassed, she eventually found the humour in frequent questions about her extravagant dress sense and generous figure.

She dismissed rumours that her breasts were insured and laughed off periodic rumours that she was bedridden due to their weight, telling People magazine: “Well, they are heavy, but they haven’t crippled me yet.”

Parton patterned her signature look on a woman she would see walking around her Tennessee hometown in tight skirts and high heels, with red nails, red lipstick and peroxided hair. “I thought she was beautiful. But everybody said, ‘She’s trash!'” Parton wrote in her 2023 book “Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones.” “I laughed and said, ‘Well, if that’s trash, that’s what I want to be when I grow up!'”

But as much as she embraced her signature look, she also viewed it as distinct from herself. “I look one way and am another,” she told Ladies’ Home Journal in ​1982. “It makes for a good combination. I always think of ‘her,’ the Dolly image, like ​a ventriloquist does his dummy. I have fun with it. I think, ⁠what will I do with her this year to surprise people? What’ll she wear? What’ll she say?”

She also expressed the wish that her appearance would serve to sell, rather than overshadow, her talent.

I want to paint a picture

Her music gained a following not only among the public but also with fellow singers who widely covered her songs – perhaps most famously Whitney Houston’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” Some of Parton’s most beloved covers and duets were with her goddaughter, American pop star Miley Cyrus, and Cyrus’ father, country music star ​Billy Ray Cyrus.

“Jolene” was covered by artists as varied as Beyoncé and The White Stripes.

While Parton was a force on stage and an accomplished vocalist, what set her apart from her peers was her talent with words. Parton wrote ​every one of her hit songs. All told, ⁠she penned an estimated 3,000 throughout her life, though she recorded only about 450 of them.

“I love to write poetic songs and sing flowery words,” she wrote in “Dolly Parton, Songteller.” “I like to make you see something visually, so I want to paint a picture. And I love to come up with clever lines, not just like a songwriter, but like a poet.”

The songs are my legacy

Parton made her movie debut in 1980’s “9 to 5,” starring alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, with the title tune earning Parton an Oscar nomination for songwriting. She got another Oscar songwriting nomination in 2006 for “Travelin’ Thru,” written for the film “Transamerica.”

Her other movie acting roles included “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Rhinestone” and “Straight Talk.”

Twenty-five of ⁠her songs reached No. ​1 on the Billboard Country charts and she was a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, receiving its highest honour, the Johnny Mercer Award, in 2007. She was inducted into the Rock ​and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Parton received her first Grammy award in 1978 for her song “Here You Come Again.” In 1988, she won the People’s Choice Award for favourite all-around female entertainer.

But despite all her accolades and achievements, Parton found the greatest meaning in her art.

“I feel like I’m closest to God when I write,” she wrote in “Dolly Parton, Songteller.” “A great line will just come to me, and ​I’ll go, ‘Hey, thank You, Lord. I know I didn’t think of that.'”

“At the end of the day, I hope that I will be remembered as a good songwriter. The songs are my legacy.”

Dolly Parton, popularly called Queen of country music, died on Tuesday, August 25, 2025 at the age of 80.

President Donald Trump has directed that America’s flag be flown at half-mast for seven days in honour of the legendary American country music singer, songwriter, actress, and philanthropist who shaped modern music and pop culture.

No ​cause of death was disclosed, but Parton’s publicist said she died peacefully in Nashville. People magazine reported the star fought a “brief battle with cancer,” citing her representatives. Days earlier, Parton told the magazine she was dealing with unspecified health issues but planned to keep working.

“By ‌her example, we believed anything was possible,” her nephew, Bryan Seaver, said in a video message. “She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”

With classic songs including “Coat of Many Colours,” “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” Parton became one of the best-selling female artists of all time, with over 100 million records sold. She won 11 Grammy awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dolly Parton was around six when she wrote her first song: “Little Tiny Tasseltop,” an ode to her corncob doll with corn-silk hair. Her mother stored it preciously in a shoebox.

“I loved that little doll,” Parton wrote decades later. “I expressed myself and my feelings through writing — I’m sure what I was thinking was, ‘Well, Tasseltop has to have a song about her.'”

Parton never stopped making music after that. The irrepressible country music singer, songwriter and actress whose charisma, heartfelt lyrics and business acumen captured the public’s imagination for nearly six decades, died on Tuesday aged 80, her family said in a statement.