Dolly Parton, the Tennessee songwriter who turned “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You” into songs known far beyond country music, has died at 80.
Parton died peacefully in Nashville on August 25, her publicist confirmed. No cause of death has been disclosed. Entertainment Weekly remembered a seven-decade career that stretched across songwriting, recording, film, television, business and philanthropy.
The first person fans saw delivering the news was not a publicist or fellow musician. It was Parton’s nephew Bryan Seaver, the son of her sister Cassie Parton and her head of security for more than two decades.
Seaver said Parton herself had assigned him that responsibility years earlier. She had asked him to make the video announcement when the time eventually came, leaving him with a duty whose emotional weight, he said, did not fully hit him until he sat down in front of the camera.
Parton Had Already Chosen Who Would Deliver the News
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Seaver appeared on Parton’s official Instagram account and introduced himself as a representative of the Parton and Owens families before announcing the death of “my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean.” “This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” he said.
Seaver explained that he had served as Parton’s head of security for more than 20 years, taking over a role previously held by his father, Larry. That gave him years to imagine eventually having to fulfill his aunt’s request without actually knowing what the moment would feel like. “I have imagined the heaviness of this moment, but haven’t truly felt it until now,” he said.
His message moved between Parton’s public legacy and the woman known within the family as Sister, Sis and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next. Seaver recalled first going on the road with Parton as a child in the early 1980s and credited her with opening opportunities not just for him but for relatives who followed her example.
“Dolly opened doors not just for me but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible,” he said. He expanded that thought to the generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and other dreamers influenced by her career.
Parton had been preceded in death by her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025 at 82 after nearly 59 years of marriage. In his announcement, Seaver expressed the family’s belief that she had now been reunited with Dean, her parents and other loved ones.
Parton Was Hospitalized Four Days Before Her Death
Parton’s health had forced changes to her schedule in the months before her death, although she continued emphasizing that she intended to work. A significant new detail emerged after her death was announced: PEOPLE confirmed that Parton was admitted to a hospital near her Nashville home on Friday, August 21, and died there four days later.
The admission came the same day PEOPLE published new comments from Parton about the health problems she had been managing. She said she had neglected some of her own medical needs while caring for Dean before his death. “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,” she said.
Parton had also missed an August 14 appearance at Dollywood for the opening of its NightFlight Expedition attraction. In a video message, she told fans that she had been experiencing dizziness and dehydration and that her Nashville doctor had advised her not to travel that week.
Four Days Earlier, Parton Was Still Talking About Everything She Wanted to Do
Even while acknowledging those medical problems, Parton was not talking about retirement. In the August 21 PEOPLE feature, she characteristically turned the discussion toward work. “Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!” she said.
Parton added that she had “so many things I want to achieve” and intended to continue working as long as she could to bring those plans to life.
Several projects were already underway. She was preparing the Life of Many Colors Museum in downtown Nashville, designed as an extensive exhibition devoted to her life and career. The museum shares a building with her SongTeller Hotel, which was scheduled to begin welcoming guests in September.
Parton also said her team was in the early stages of exploring “avatar performances” that could give audiences new ways of experiencing her music when traveling or performing in person became difficult.
Her business plans extended to a line of dog treats with Purina and Cup of Ambition Coffee, a project inspired by the famous lyric from “9 to 5” that she said she had dreamed about pursuing for roughly four decades.
She Built a Career That Stretched Far Beyond Country Music
Parton’s ambitions had been expanding for most of her life. Raised as one of 12 children in East Tennessee, she was writing songs while still a child and moved to Nashville immediately after high school. Her breakthrough association with Porter Wagoner in the late 1960s helped establish her nationally before she built a solo career whose reach eventually extended far outside country music.
“Jolene” became one of her defining songs, while “I Will Always Love You,” written as she separated professionally from Wagoner, topped the country chart in Parton’s own recordings before Whitney Houston transformed it into a global pop phenomenon in 1992.
Parton’s crossover success accelerated with “9 to 5,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 and accompanied her film debut opposite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She later appeared in movies including The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias while continuing to record and write.
By the end of her career, Parton had sold more than 100 million records worldwide, scored 26 No. 1 singles on Billboard’s country charts and won 11 Grammy Awards. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Her Imagination Library Became Another Part of Her Legacy
Parton’s influence eventually became almost as closely associated with philanthropy as with entertainment. She launched Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995 in her native Sevier County, Tennessee, inspired in part by her father Robert Lee Parton’s inability to read and write.
The program mails free, age-appropriate books to young children. What began locally expanded across the United States and into Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. According to Parton’s official website, the program has distributed hundreds of millions of books since its creation.
Her charitable work also extended to scholarships, disaster relief and medical research. After wildfires devastated parts of East Tennessee in 2016, Parton’s My People Fund provided direct financial assistance to affected families. She later donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for COVID-19 research that contributed to work associated with the Moderna vaccine.
Her Family Shared the Final Message She Left for Fans
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After Seaver’s video announcement, Parton’s official Instagram account shared another message consisting of five words immediately recognizable from one of the most famous songs she ever wrote: “I will always love you.”
Seaver also said his aunt had given him a characteristically specific description of how she wanted to be laid to rest. “Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest,” he recalled.
Parton’s representative subsequently confirmed that, at her request, there will be “a small, private service” for immediate family. Fans and friends around the world were instead encouraged to share tributes on social media by tagging Parton’s official account or leaving messages through her website.
The family also asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. For Seaver, the difficult assignment his aunt had given him years earlier ended with a variation on the lyric she had chosen for her own final public message. “She will always love you,” he said.