Dolly Parton, the country music icon and entertainer behind hits including “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” died Tuesday in Nashville at age 80.
Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced her death in a video posted to her Instagram account on behalf of the Parton and Owens family. No cause of death was disclosed.
Parton rose from an impoverished childhood in a one-room cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee, one of 12 siblings, to become one of the best-selling music artists in history and a fixture of American film and television, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Her songwriting catalog spans more than six decades and includes “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” the latter later reworked into a global hit by Whitney Houston.
Health concerns had surrounded Parton since the fall of 2025, when she announced she was postponing a six-show December residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to address what she described as health challenges requiring several procedures, according to Variety. She was later reported to have been undergoing treatment tied to kidney stones.
Parton’s husband of nearly 58 years, businessman Carl Dean, died in March 2025 at age 82.
Beyond music, Parton built a business empire anchored by the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and was a longtime philanthropist through her Imagination Library, which has distributed millions of free books to children, according to The Music Universe. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
“I keep saying: If you’re the fine Christian that you think you are, why are you judging people,” Parton said in a 2017 interview cited by NBC News, describing her longtime support for LGBTQ rights.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
