Dolly Parton, one of the greatest singers and songwriters in the history of American popular entertainment, has died. Parton's family announced her passing in a video statement from her nephew Byran Seaver that was posted on Parton's social media channels this afternoon. According to a statement from her representatives, Parton passed away "peacefully" in Nashville today. No cause of death has been reported.
In a recent years, it's been a bit of a cliché that Dolly Parton is the one person who can be unanimously beloved in all of the United States, regardless of race, religion, sexuality, region, or economic status. That was probably an overstatement, and all of the exaggerated hero-worship of Parton can feel like a bit much. But even with that said, Parton made a great deal of music that will absolutely never die, and she was an absolute delight whenever she appeared in pretty much any form of media. She changed a lot of lives with her philanthropic efforts, and we are already worse off without her.
Dolly Parton was born into deep poverty in a tiny cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 children, and her father was a sharecropper, tobacco farmer, and construction worker who never learned to read. She began singing in church at six and taught herself to play on a homemade guitar at seven. Soon, she was singing on local radio and television. At 13, she released her debut single "Puppy Love" and performed at the Grand Ole Opry. In the mid-'60s, a teenage Parton co-wrote a few country hits with her uncle, the established Nashville songwriter Bill Owens.
Parton moved to Nashville the day after she graduated high school, and she signed with Monument Records at 19. The label initially tried to sell her as a mainstream pop singer, without much success. She switched over to country, where she only found middling success before 1967, when country great Porter Wagoner offered her a regular spot on The Porter Wagoner Show, his syndicated TV series. Parton replaced Wagoner's much-loved co-star Norma Jean, and audiences rejected her at first, but she won them over. "The Last Thing On My Mind," a 1967 duet with Wagoner, became the first of Parton's many top-10 hits on the country chart.
For years, Parton was better-known for her Porter Wagoner duets than for her solo songs, but she finally reached #3 with the quasi-novelty yodel "Mule Skinner Blues" in 1970. Later that year, she hit #1 with "Joshua," a song that she wrote. A string of hits followed, the most beloved of which is 1971's "Coat Of Many Colors," an absolutely shattering story-song about growing up poor but secure in her family's love. The story that she told on that song, about her mother knitting her a coat from rags, was true.
Parton left The Porter Wagoner Show in 1974, and she wrote "I Will Always Love You" as a farewell to Wagoner. Parton and Wagoner were never romantically involved, so it's a platonic love song, though people can and do take what they want from it. Parton topped the country chart twice with "I Will Always Love You" — when she first released the song in 1974, and then again when she she re-recorded it for the 1982 musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. Whitney Houston's 1992 cover of "I Will Always Love You" is one of the biggest pop hits of all time.
Legend has it that Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" on the same night. Parton herself once made that claim in an interview, though she later admitted that she wasn't so sure that was true. Regardless, "Jolene" is another forever song, a haunting and helpless plea to a romantic rival. "Jolene" was another country chart-topper, and it has been covered many, many times over the years, including memorable versions from the White Stripes and Beyoncé.
Parton began hosting her own syndicated series in 1976. She continued to rack up country hits through the late '70s, and she gradually moved in a more pop-friendly direction over the years. In 1977, Parton reached #1 on the country charts and #3 on the Hot 100 with "Here You Come Again," a flirty adult contemporary song written by the veteran Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. In the years that followed, Parton became a true pop culture fixture who made regular appearances on talk shows, making jokes at her own expense. Her singles regularly charted. She made her acting debut in the smash pop-feminist 1980 comedy 9 To 5, co-starring with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She also wrote and sang the film's effervescent title song, and it became her first Hot 100 chart-topper.
In 1982, Parton starred opposite Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, another hit, and again topped the Hot 100 with "Islands In The Stream," a Kenny Rogers duet written and produced by the Bee Gees. It was Parton's last major crossover pop hit, but she continued to notch country chart-topper for the rest of the '80s. In 1987, Parton joined forces with fellow country-crossover veterans Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to form the supergroup Trio and to release a big-selling, critically acclaimed self-titled album. She also continued to take occasional starring roles in movies — Rhinestone with Sylvester Stallone in 1984, the 1989 ensemble weeper Steel Magnolias, the unfortunate 1992 rom-com Straight Talk with James Woods — though her hit-rate was less consistent in that arena.
In 1986, Parton hosted her own ABC variety show, and she bought into a stake of Silver Dollar City, a theme park near her Pittman Center hometown, renaming it Dollywood. It still draws millions of people every year. Soon afterward, Parton established the Dollywood Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping impoverished children in the area. She co-founded Sandollar Productions, a film and TV production company that made shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and movies like the 1991 Father Of The Bride remake. Parton kept making music, too. She teamed up with Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn for the 1993 album Honky Tonk Angels, then another album with Trio in 1999. In the late '90s and early '00s, she came out with a series of stripped-down bluegrass records that included covers of songs by bands like Led Zeppelin and Collective Soul.
In the later stages of her career, Parton seemed to enjoy her status as a near-universally beloved legacy artist. She performed at the 2014 Glastonbury Festival and frequently duetted with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. She seemed confused but ultimately happy to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2022, and she celebrated the occasion with Rockstar, a 2023 double album in which she and a number of big-name guests covered tons of classic rock songs. In 2025, Parton appeared on a version of Sabrina Carpenter's chart-topper "Please Please Please," and she postponed and then canceled a planned Las Vegas residency for health reasons. Carl Dean, Parton's husband of 66 years, passed away last year, and she released the song "If You Hadn't Been There" in his memory.
