Dolly Parton’s team confirms she has died after ‘brief battle with cancer’
Dolly Parton’s team has confirmed the country music legend died after “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer”.
“Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” the statement continued.
Read the full report below:
Key events
Dolly Parton was many things to millions of people – entertainer, songwriter, businesswoman, philanthropist, friend and inspiration. To those fortunate enough to know and work alongside her, she was also simply Dolly: warm, funny, thoughtful, generous and always deeply grounded in where she came from and the people she loved, writes the Associated Press.
Dolly often said that she had been blessed far beyond anything she ever dreamed possible, and she believed deeply that those blessings came with a responsibility to give something back,” said Jeff Conyers, president of The Dollywood Foundation.
That belief is woven into everything we do at The Dollywood Foundation. While we are heartbroken by her loss, the mission she gave us is as clear today as it has ever been, and it has ever been, and we will carry it forward for generations to come.
Bryan Armen Graham
There are not many people who could match Dolly Parton as a singular figure in American life, but Don King is surely one of them. The flamboyant and controversial boxing promoter, who turned 95 last week, has shared a remembrance of Parton on social media, describing her as a “dear friend” and offering a characteristically vivid farewell.
“I love Dolly Parton,” King said. “She was a dear friend. She’d be greatly missed here on earth, but she’d be eternally remembered spiritually. Let the Lord giveth and the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Rest easy, Dolly, and keep a light in the window for me.”
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King and Parton made for unlikely contemporaries. Both emerged from improbable beginnings to become larger-than-life American pop-culture icons, rising to global prominence in the 1970s and remaining instantly recognizable for decades afterward. Parton grew up in a one-room cabin in rural Tennessee as one of 12 children. King, known for his gravity-defying shock of silver hair, listened to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s first fight from prison in 1971; four years later, he promoted their third, the Thrilla in Manila.
Whether they were actually close is less clear. There appears to be no public record of a friendship between the pair, nor much evidence that their paths in the otherwise overlapping worlds of sports, entertainment and celebrity ever crossed publicly.
But King’s tribute was heartfelt nonetheless. And if nothing else, it was a case of game recognizing game: one unmistakable American original saluting another.
The Empire State building sparkling pink tonight in honour of Dolly.
More tributes to Dolly Parton, in pictures.
A classic number plate.
People gathered at the Dolly Parton statue.
Jad Abumrad, journalist and creator of the Dolly Parton’s America podcast has written an insightful opinion piece for the New York Times detailing his interactions with the country music queen. He starts:
I was lucky enough to interview Dolly Parton a dozen times, on two different continents, and she began nearly every interview with some version of this: ‘Ask me anything you want to ask me, and I’ll tell you what I want you to hear!’”
Beyond her musical talent, Parton was also lauded for her extensive philanthropic work on literacy through organizations such as the Dollywood Foundation and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The Imagination Library, which sends free books to children from birth to age five, has gifted more than 270m books since it was founded by Parton in 1995, inspired by her father, who could not read or write.
In 2024, one in seven children aged under five in the US received a book in the post each month from the program.
The Imagination Library was launched in the UK in 2007 on the back of the success of the project in the US.
The program’s UK outfit, which began in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has since gifted 7m books.
The Imagination Library X account posted that their team were “heartbroken” at the loss of their founder, who was proud that the program “grew into what it is today”.
Beyoncé has paid tribute to Dolly Parton, saying in a statement published to her website:
Dolly, you were the barometer. The north star. Bold and brilliant. Talented and tenacious. You taught so many lessons on how to be uniquely oneself. I am grateful for your art, your heart, your generosity, your humor, your entrepreneurship.
I’m honored that I had the privilege to work with you. I will treasure that forever. Thank you for your profound impact on the world. You are an angel who has made this world a happier place because of your joyful art. You are truly one of one. Rest peacefully.
Check out this collection of Dolly Parton’s life through pictures.
Some amazing photographs below.
A look at Dolly Parton, through her most memorable quotes.
On positivity:
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
On her career:
“You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.”
On her looks:
“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
On relationships:
“I think everyone should be with who they love. I don’t want to be controversial or stir up a bunch of trouble but people are going to love who they are going to love. I think gay couples should be allowed to marry. They should suffer just like us heterosexuals.”
Read more of Dolly in her words below:
Dolly Parton’s team confirms she has died after ‘brief battle with cancer’
Dolly Parton’s team has confirmed the country music legend died after “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer”.
“Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” the statement continued.
Read the full report below:
Ben Stiller shares his memory of Dolly Parton:
Writing on X, he said:
Dolly Parton memory: her being incredibly nice and cool to EVERYONE when i was on SNL in 1988 as a featured player/apprentice writer and wrote a sketch for her and me that bombed at readthrough and she totally sold it as it bombed and was so kind about it and I never met her again but always wanted to thank her for being so cool and making me and everyone feel special. What an icon, and for so long. A person who emanated goodness, and of course, a brilliant songwriter and performer. Sending love to her family and friends.
About 15,000km (9,300 miles) away from Dolly Parton’s beloved Smoky Mountains home in Tennessee, a small town in rural Australia will always love her.
Narromine, a farming community of 4,000 people in central NSW, is home to the Dolly Parton festival, which fills the wide country streets with her music every year.
Organiser Susie Rae said the town would hold a minute of silence to honour the queen of country music at the festival on 10 October, after Parton’s death.
Ms Rae, who founded the event in 2022, said Parton’s music, love and generosity breathed life into the community after it endured a prolonged drought and the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was just off the cusp of Covid and I remember standing there with [a local politician] and he said, ‘Susie, I haven’t felt the power of love like this for a very long time.’
“I said, ‘Well, that’s Dolly’ … It was incredible.”
