Dolly Parton, the queen of country music and the owner of a humanitarian legacy, has passed away at the age of 80.

Dolly Parton, who rose from humble beginnings to reach the highest ranks of American music and became one of America's most beloved and generous stars, died at the age of 80, on Tuesday, at her home in Nashville, according to a statement issued by her family. The statement, attributed to her nephew Brian Seaver, said Parton died "peacefully" and noted that a small, private memorial service would be held for her close family members.

Parton has been vocal about her health issues over the past two years, especially after the death of her husband, Carl Dean, in March 2025. “When my husband Carl was very sick - for a long time - and after he died, I didn't take care of myself,” she said in a video to her fans earlier this year.

So I neglected a lot of things that I should have taken care of.” An American Treasure In an artistic career that spanned more than half a century, Dolly Parton embodied the American experience, writing more than 3,000 songs.

Among them is “Coat of Many Colors,” a tender ode dedicated to her mother, who sewed clothes at the family’s rural home in Tennessee. She also wrote and performed songs about love and separation, such as “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” and “9 to 5,” the theme song from the film of the same name, in which Parton also participated, became an anthem for American women and workers.

Parton continued her artistic career by releasing 49 albums and winning 11 Grammy Awards, becoming one of the most successful country music artists of all time, achieving continuous successes on the pop charts, including the song “Islands in the Stream,” which she performed with Kenny Rogers. Toward the end of her life, she devoted her tremendous success to philanthropy, establishing a library program that has provided more than 300 million books to children around the world.

But Parton was, above all, a songwriter. She loved to tell the story of how one of her most famous songs, “I Will Always Love You,” came to life.

This romantic song, a huge hit after Whitney Houston sang it in the 1990s, began as a plea to her performing partner, Porter Wagner, to let her move on from the TV show they appeared on together. While she insisted on going solo, Wagner, she says, "wouldn't listen to anything" she said.

She added: “So I went home and wrote that song, and the next morning, I said, ‘Sit down, I want you to hear something.’ So I sang it, and he was crying.” Wagner agreed, and Parton embarked, with a song that embodied the deep pain of separation, on a solo artistic career that is almost unique in the history of American music.

Humble Beginnings Dolly Parton was born on January 19, 1946 in a small one-room cabin in Tennessee, the fourth of her 12 sisters, and described her family as “very poor.” Music has always had a special place in her family, especially through her mother, and her father was a preacher who played the piano and guitar.

“My people were the ones who sang at funerals, weddings, celebrations, and every local event,” Parton once recounted. Her uncle gave her the first guitar she owned in her childhood.

She learned to play it when she was 7 years old, and began writing her own songs. “My mom was amazed that I could write and write songs about things that I had never experienced, but I could hear her talking,” Parton said.

Parton moved to Nashville after graduating from high school to pursue her musical ambitions. On her first day there, she met a man named Carl Thomas Dean in front of a laundromat.

She wrote many years later: “I was surprised and delighted when I saw him look at my face as he spoke to me, which is a rare occurrence for me... He seemed genuinely interested in knowing who I was and what I was doing.”

Parton signed her first recording contract with Monument Records in 1965, and married Dean the following year. As her popularity in Nashville increased, in 1967 Parton landed a regular appearance on “The Porter Wagoner Show,” a popular television music program that made her widely known.

Her song "Joshua" reached number one in 1971, while her song "Coat of Many Colors", which was released in the same year, reached number four. By 1974, after seven years as the "pretty girl" singing with Porter Wagner, and then sharing the stage with him on numerous duets, Parton decided it was time to move on, and with the release of "I Will Always Love You," her independent career began.

The move may have seemed risky at the time, but at the age of 20, Parton founded a music company with her uncle, and sometime songwriter, Bill Owens. She had the majority stake in the production of her music, and her vision was clear: to ensure that she could provide for her family.

This gave her a degree of control available to few artists – and few women – at the time. In 1974, she even turned down Elvis Presley's request to perform "I Will Always Love You" because his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, wanted a share in the copyright.

She recounted that she said at the time: “This is my own company, and it is clear that this will be one of my most important copyrights, and I cannot give you half of the copyrights, because these are rights that I will leave to my family.” Years later, when the song became a hit for Houston as a romantic theme song for the 1992 film "The Bodyguard," Parton earned nearly $10 million in royalties.

From singing to screen With her distinctive Southern voice, captivating charm, and striking beauty, Dolly Parton was a natural talent in front of the camera. She tried to launch her own variety show called "Dolly", but it only lasted one season.

Parton's first film appearance was in the 1980 film "9 to 5", alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, in which the three stars played secretaries plotting revenge on their bigoted boss. Fonda, who co-produced the film through her newly founded production company, recalled the moment she knew Parton had to be a part of the film.

She had seen Tomlin in a solo show on Broadway, and knew she wanted to cast her in the role. On her way home, she turned on the radio and heard Parton singing "Two Doors Down," an uplifting song about a woman who chooses to forget her emotional pain and go to her neighbor's party.

"I felt goosebumps running through my body," Fonda said. Parton agreed to star in the film on the condition that she write and perform its theme song.

"9 to 5" quickly became part of the music of the women's liberation movement, particularly regarding protection and equal rights in the workplace. She returned to the big screen in 1982 in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" with Burt Reynolds, and then in 1989 in "Steel Magnolias," the story of a group of strong-willed Southern women, starring Sally Field and Julia Roberts, which introduced her to a new generation of fans.

Parton lent her musical talent to projects that may not have appealed to many in her traditional country music camp, such as her 2005 song “Travelin’ Thru,” which appeared in the movie “Transamerica.” This song earned Parton her second Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song, after “9 to 5.” Parton has remained silent about her political views in general.

Her fans didn't know what she thought of specific presidents or politicians, and she bristled at being labeled. She did not define herself as a feminist, although she later admitted that she was a feminist "in practice" rather than in theory.

As usual, she let the lyrics of her songs speak for themselves. A Legacy of Giving Dolly Parton has had tremendous success over the years, penning numerous hit songs and having her image used on almost everything from baking mixes to jewelry to cast iron cookware.

In 1986, it purchased an amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and renamed it Dollywood. This theme park attracts Dolly fans from all over the world and is a major source of income for the region.

According to the 2021 Economic Impact Study, the amusement park is the largest employer in Sevier County, credited with creating more than 23,000 jobs and generating approximately $1.8 billion annually. Parton has published several best-selling books, including the memoirs Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, Backstage: My Rhinestone-Studded Life, and Star of the Show: My Life on Stage, as well as the novel Run, Rose, Run, which she co-wrote with James Patterson.

She is also the author of several children's books, including I Am the Rainbow, Coat of Many Colors, and the Billy the Kid series. In 1999, Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2011.

As for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she was initially hesitant about joining it, saying she didn't feel like a true rock star. But she took it as an invitation (at her husband's request) to try out a rock album, dubbed "Rockstar," which saw the country legend sing with rock stars like Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, as well as re-create classic rock songs like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Let It Be."

As her success in music and business increased, so did Parton's humanitarian efforts. Two years after opening Dollywood, Parton launched a foundation of the same name, initially seeking to reduce the high school dropout rate in her Tennessee district.

After expanding her work to include the Buddy Program, in which Barton personally pledged $500 to each student in the seventh and eighth grades upon his or her high school graduation, she founded the Imagination Library, which has grown into one of the most prominent early literacy initiatives and book gifting programs in the world. The credit for all of this goes to her father, to whom she said the library was a dedication.

“He was the smartest man I ever knew, but I know for sure that his inability to read probably prevented him from achieving all his dreams,” she said. Along with numerous donations and scholarship programs, Barton has mobilized over the years after natural disasters struck her state and surrounding areas.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, she personally contributed to funding the development of the Moderna vaccine, donating $1 million to coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville. “I felt very proud to contribute to this seed funding, which I hope will grow into something great and help heal this world,” Barton said.

I Will Always Love You Throughout her life, Dolly Parton has kept her private life out of the limelight. Her husband, Carl Dean, was noticeably absent from the spotlight for most of their marriage, but their love story was intense.

“It's worked for us because we work in different fields, and it's fun to be together,” Parton said in 2024. “So having a little personal space makes coming home exciting.”

Dean was a strong and quiet supporter of Parton's career. “The secret to our long-term relationship is that we don’t spend a lot of time together,” she told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2020.

Dean was also a partial inspiration for her hit song "Jolene," as Parton wrote the song after a bank employee showed excessive attention to her husband, she previously told NPR. "He loved going to the bank because she was paying him so much attention," she previously told NPR. Dean died in March 2025 at the age of 82, and his loss was extremely painful for the late star.

She released a song called “If You Hadn’t Been There” in tribute to her husband, with whom she lived for 59 years.