‘I will always love you’: America says goodbye to Dolly Parton at 80

BS BULLETIN:

Dolly Parton, the country music legend, songwriter, actress and philanthropist, has died at 80.
Her nephew Bryan Seaver announced her death Tuesday on behalf of the Parton and Owens families.
Just four days ago, Dolly said that despite her health struggles, “I’m still workin’” and had “so many things I want to achieve.”

Some celebrity deaths feel like news. Others feel like losing somebody you knew.

Dolly Parton, one of the most beloved entertainers America ever produced, died Tuesday at the age of 80, her family announced. Her nephew and longtime head of security, Bryan Seaver, delivered the news in a video posted to Dolly’s social media accounts, saying she had asked him years ago to make the announcement when the day eventually came.

“It is an honor that is mixed with absolute pride and great sadness,” Seaver said. “But sadness lies with us, not with Dolly.”

That last line feels especially right, because it is difficult to think about Dolly Parton without thinking about joy.

She was born Dolly Rebecca Parton in 1946 in rural Tennessee, one of 12 children in a family that had very little money. Her father worked to support the family, and Dolly would later speak openly about growing up poor. But the little girl from the Tennessee mountains had an extraordinary gift: she could write songs. She began writing as a child, performed at the Grand Ole Opry as a teenager and eventually became one of the most successful songwriters and performers in American music history.

“Jolene.” “Coat of Many Colors.” “9 to 5.” And, of course, “I Will Always Love You.”

Whitney Houston would later turn that last song into one of the biggest recordings in pop-music history, but those words belonged to Dolly. She wrote it years earlier as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner when she decided it was time to leave his television show and strike out on her own. What followed was an extraordinary American career: country music stardom became pop stardom, followed by movies including 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, Dollywood, business ventures, books and television. She recorded dozens of studio albums, sold more than 100 million records and accumulated a mountain of awards.

But somewhere along the way, something unusual happened. Dolly became bigger than celebrity. She simply became Dolly. No last name required.

She could walk into a room covered in rhinestones, towering blonde hair and enough sparkle to be visible from the International Space Station, then make fun of herself before anybody else had the chance. She understood the joke. She was in on the joke. Underneath all of it was an extraordinarily shrewd businesswoman who never seemed to forget the Tennessee mountains where she came from.

Perhaps nothing demonstrates that better than Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. She created the program in 1995 in her home county in Tennessee, inspired by her father, who could not read or write. It began by mailing free books to local children from birth to age five and eventually spread across America and into other countries. More than 270 million free books have been mailed through the program. Dolly once said one of her proudest memories was hearing children call her “The Book Lady” because of how much that meant to her father.

Think about that legacy: millions of children opening their mailboxes and finding a book because a little girl who grew up poor in the Tennessee mountains remembered where she came from.

There was something else increasingly rare about Dolly Parton. Everybody seemed to be allowed to love her. In an era when entertainers routinely turned themselves into political combatants, Dolly generally resisted demands that she choose a political tribe. She could be embraced by people who disagreed about practically everything else. Maybe that was because her values weren’t particularly complicated: faith, family, work, humor, kindness and never getting too impressed with yourself.

The news of her death is particularly heartbreaking because Dolly was still talking about the future only days ago. On Aug. 21 — just four days before her death — she spoke candidly about the health problems she had been battling and said she had neglected some of her own health while caring for her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, before his death in March 2025.

But even while discussing illness, this was still Dolly Parton talking about what she planned to do next.

“Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!” she said. Then came words that are difficult to read today: “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.”

Four days later, she was gone.

There are singers with bigger voices. There are stars who sold more records. There are richer businesspeople and more decorated actors. But there will never be another Dolly Parton, because she managed something much harder than becoming famous.

She became loved.

MY QUICK TAKE

No snark today.

Dolly Parton represented something wonderful about America: a dirt-poor little girl from Tennessee could dream an outrageous dream, work like crazy, refuse to become somebody else just because sophisticated people told her she should — and end up conquering the world.

Then, after she conquered it, she remembered the kids back home. That may be the most Dolly thing of all.

She gave us songs we will be singing long after all of us are gone. She gave millions of children books. She gave us laughs. And she showed that enormous success didn’t require pretending you were too important to laugh at yourself.

Eighty years wasn’t enough. But what a life she packed into them.

Rest in peace, Dolly.

America will always love you.

DBS WIRE SOURCES: