Dolly Parton was an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist and businesswoman known as the “Queen of Country.” Across a career that lasted nearly 70 years, she released 49 studio albums, wrote more than 3,000 songs and sold over 100 million records, becoming one of the most successful performers in the history of country music. She wrote “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” built the Dollywood theme park, and gave away hundreds of millions of books to children through her Imagination Library. She died in Nashville on August 25, 2026, at the age of 80.
Quick Facts
| Full Name | Dolly Rebecca Parton |
| Age | 80 years old at death |
| Date of Birth | January 19, 1946 |
| Date of Death | August 25, 2026, Nashville, Tennessee |
| Birthplace | Pittman Center, Tennessee, USA |
| Height | 5 ft 0 in (152 cm) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Singer-Songwriter, Actress, Philanthropist |
| Partner | Carl Dean (husband, 1966–2025) |
| Children | None |
| Net Worth | Approx. $650 million |
Who Is Dolly Parton?
Dolly Parton was an American singer-songwriter known as the “Queen of Country,” one of the most beloved and most honored performers in the history of country music. Born in a one-room cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, she became a songwriter, recording star, movie actress, theme-park owner and one of America’s most generous philanthropists, with a career that ran from 1956 until her death in 2026.
Parton’s numbers are staggering: 25 No. 1 singles on the Billboard country chart — tied with Reba McEntire for the most by a woman — 44 Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles. She won 11 Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and three Emmy Awards. Her songs “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” are among the most famous ever written, and Whitney Houston’s recording of the latter became the best-selling single by a woman in history. Off stage, her Imagination Library mailed more than 100 million books to young children, and her $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University helped fund the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Early Life & Background
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee. She was the fourth of twelve children born to Robert Lee Parton, a sharecropper and tobacco farmer, and Avie Lee Owens Parton. The family was, in Parton’s own words, “dirt poor,” and her father paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal. Her mother sang old ballads brought to Appalachia by immigrants from the British Isles, and Parton credited her with her musical gifts.
Parton wrote her first song at age six, performed on local radio and television by age ten, and recorded her first single, “Puppy Love,” at thirteen. The day after graduating from Sevier County High School in 1964, she moved to Nashville, where she met her future husband, Carl Dean, at a laundromat on her first day in town. They married on May 30, 1966, in Ringgold, Georgia, and remained married for nearly 59 years, until Dean’s death on March 3, 2025.
Career
Parton’s first success came as a songwriter, and in 1967 she joined The Porter Wagoner Show, becoming one of country music’s biggest stars as Wagoner’s duet partner. Her solo career took off with “Joshua” (1971), her first No. 1, and then with “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” both written in 1973 about her break with Wagoner. She refused to sell Elvis Presley half the publishing rights to “I Will Always Love You” — a decision that later earned her many millions in royalties — and went on to cross over to pop with “Here You Come Again” (1977) and “9 to 5” (1980), which topped the country, pop and adult-contemporary charts at the same time. Her 1983 duet with Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream,” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On screen, Parton starred in the hit film 9 to 5 (1980), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989) and Joyful Noise (2012), and she played “Aunt Dolly” on Miley Cyrus‘s Hannah Montana. She wrote the music for Broadway’s 9 to 5 (2009), earning a Tony Award nomination, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. In 1986, she became co-owner of the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and she was honored with the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honor and, in 2025, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Parton remained active into her late seventies. Her final solo album, Rockstar (2023), reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album ever, and in 2024 she appeared on Beyoncé‘s Cowboy Carter. A planned Las Vegas residency in December 2025 was postponed and then cancelled, and her last public appearance came in June 2026 at the opening of a truck stop in Cornersville, Tennessee. She was hospitalized at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center on August 21, 2026, and died after a brief battle with cancer on August 25, at age 80. Tributes poured in from across music and public life, and Nashville International Airport was renamed in her honor.
Facts About Dolly Parton
- Parton wrote more than 3,000 songs, including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5.”
- Her Imagination Library mailed more than 100 million free books to children around the world.
- She won 11 Grammy Awards and received 55 Grammy nominations over her career.
- Parton turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times — twice during Donald Trump’s first term and once during Joe Biden’s presidency.
- She was the godmother of Miley Cyrus, whose father, Billy Ray Cyrus, was a longtime friend of Parton’s.
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