Country music superstar Dolly Parton has died at age 80. Her nephew announced her death in a video on Tuesday, August 25, 2026.
Dolly’s Early Years
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Appalachia, in the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. Her mother, Avie Lee Parton, was a homemaker, and her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a construction worker and sharecropper.
Her love for music grew at an early age, having learned traditional folk ballads and church songs from her mother. In a 2020 interview with People magazine, Parton said, “All my mother’s people were very musical, so I was always around people playing instruments and singing, and my mom singing the old songs.”
When Dolly was a child, she was a featured singer and guitarist on local radio and TV shows in Knoxville, Tennessee. After she graduated from high school in 1964, she immediately set out for Nashville to pursue a music career.
Once in Nashville, Parton became protégée of country music singer and Grand Ole Opry star Porter Wagner. Dolly was able to gain coast-to-coast recognition through repeated appearances on Wagoner’s syndicated TV show.
It didn’t take long before she attracted the attention of the music industry moguls at RCA Records. Soon after signing with them (with the help of Wagnor), she recorded more than a dozen more than a dozen hit songs on the RCA label.
Some of the hit songs she is known for are “Joshua,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5,” and many more.
Health Issues
On August 21, 2026, Parton shared a statement with People magazine saying she was going to take time to address health issues that she “didn’t pay attention to” in the time before the death of Carl Dean, her husband, last year.
“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” Parton said in the statement, going on to add hopeful words about her future.
“Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!,” she said. “You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
On August 14 Parton was scheduled to attend an opening of a new ride at her Dollywood theme park. However, due to being “dehydrated” her doctor declined to clear her for travel.
“I’ve told you before, all my fans, that I’ve had a few little health issues and sometimes I get a little dizzy and I get dehydrated. And I’m dehydrated,” Parton said, according to a video shared on social media. “So, my Nashville doctor has kind of clipped my wings, saying, ‘You ain’t traveling this week.’”
Her last major in-person appearance was in June. That was when she made a surprise appearance at the grand opening of a gas station and restaurant called Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop.
No cause of death has been provided.
By Sheena
Sources:
ABC News: Dolly Parton shared update on her health days before her death at age 80
Britannica: Dolly Parton
Image by jpellgen (@1105_jp) via Flickr – Creative Commons
