RIP Dolly Parton
Beloved country music star, composer, and actress Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80. She lost her husband of 60 years in March of 2025. Her nephew stated:
“My family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly, but so have you. She has always been on your television, your record player, your CD and on your phone playlist, becoming an extended part of your family whether you liked it or not. Our family and the team she has entrusted with her legacy will work diligently to ensure her spirit will live with us forever. Dolly was a farmer, just like her daddy; he farmed the soil, she farmed songs and happiness. 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.”
Seaver ended his statement, saying, “Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly — Aunt, Granny, Gigi. May God bless Dolly Parton, and may God bless you all. She will always love you.”
That last sentence is a reference to a song Parton wrote, the theme from the movie The Bodyguard.
This next song about her family was reportedly one of Parton’s favorites:
RIP.
All the icons of the Boomers are quietly slipping away. I know the end of my road is coming in view, not sure when. 1 year? 2 years? 5 years? Certainly not another 10.
I met Dolly Parton. Actually worked with her over a c. five-day period. She was a very nice, sweet lady. She could sing like an angel, now she’s an angel singing in the Heavenly Choir. Rest in peace and happiness, Dolly.
I here you physicsguy, I will be 80 in Oct. Doesn’t seem possible.
The saddest lyrics I know are from the Iris DeMent song These Hills
“Like the flowers, I am fading
Into my setting sun
Brother and sister passed before me
And Mom and Daddy they’ve long since gone”
By all accounts a genuinely kind and generous woman. May she rest in peace.
I was never a big fan of Dolly Parton’s music, as Bob Wills-style Western Swing was more to my liking. Though she had a good voice. Coat of Many Colors was good. (Bob Wills connections: For years I shared beers and political palaver with an old sax player who had on occasion played in bands with Al Striklin, one of Bob’s “piano pounders.” In addition, the father of one of my students had gone to high school with a son of Al Striklin. )
Back in the 70’s I saw a TV interview of Dolly Parton. She had none of that “golly gee whiz little ol’ me” false modesty reaction to her fame. She said that she had wanted to become a famous singer, and achieved it. Good for her, I said.
I worked several weeks with an accountant—she later quit the company—who had dealt with Dolly Parton. The accountant had nothing but good words to describe Dolly.
Today I saw a Dave Letterman skit where Dolly shared w Dave her “Ten Pet Peeves.” She could laugh at herself.
One comment said that like Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton had admirers from both the left and the right.
R.I.P.
Well, Heaven’s music selections just went up a bunch.
RIP Dolly,
juvat
Related—This might blow you away.
(Maybe not…)
“…she prays for Donald Trump…”
https://instapundit.com/818919/
I didn’t know until a little while ago that her big hit with Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream” was not written by either one of them. It was written by Neo’s favorite group!
She has been one of my favorite singers/songwriters/performers for as long as I can remember; not just because of her talent, but the way she always seemed to have a certain “class” about the way she treated people. (Barry Meislin’s link above is a good example of how she would defuse a situation – that was typical Dolly)
We sort of knew her time was coming because of news reports of her health; but, those reports don’t make her passing less sad.
In addition to her talent; I think her legacy will live on through all the philanthropy she created.
May she rest in peace beside her Carl.
Sad. 🙁
One of my favorite Dolly Parton songs, Jolene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixrje2rXLMA
Her music was not to my taste, nor her grooming. However, she was quite appealing as a public personality. Nearly 60 years in the celebrity world and nothing notably embarrassing has emerged. If there’s a public figure for whom what-you-see-is-what-you-get (and what you see is quite pleasant), it has been her.
I remember when Dolly was asked somewhat crassly, are those really yours? referring to her bosom, and she replied, darn right they are, I paid a lot of money for those. Evidently, she had a sense of humor.
I know little about music and have been invited not to sing in a number of venues. But Parton’s voice is interesting. Voices differ. Is the sinus a resonance chamber? The skull? Size of the person? So on. Parton’s voice sounded like it was all vocal cords with no other modification, if there is such a thing. And she made it work.
Might just be me, but her tunes, and the combination of two or three notes following seemed to very precisely fit the emotion of the song, or of that part of the line. Very well done.
My favorite Dolly Parton song by far (from 1977)
is “Here You Come Again”.
“Voices differ. Is the sinus a resonance chamber? The skull? Size of the person? So on. Parton’s voice sounded like it was all vocal cords with no other modification, if there is such a thing.”
Richard,
You might want to become acquainted with Elizabeth Zharoff. I first found her with her reaction videos: a trained classical opera singer learning about classic rock. Her analysis goes beyond, “Golly gee,I never heard that before” to often technical insights to the music, and particularly the voice. More to your question, she helps in actual research in how the voice works. Here’s her more serious site:
https://thecharismaticvoice.com/
and the youtube reaction channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@TheCharismaticVoice
In the same vein is Amy Sava, another classical musician examining the rock genre. She’s a great compliment to Elizabeth as she focuses much on the actual music construction, while Elizabeth concentrates more on the voice. I wish they would do a session together; and they have talked about that.
https://www.youtube.com/virginrock
My wife and I taught Country/Western dancing, along with Swing and Latin and competed at the National and International level.
I did the music so had to know rhythm, tempo, phrasing and the like.
We both liked Dolly Parton as a person but to our ear, her voice, music didn’t work for dancing so never played it. Same thing with Willie Nelson. Top notch song writer – the song “Crazy” would alone put him in the song writer Hall fo Fame – but his voice was an acquired taste and we never acquired it.
It is said she gave away 1/2 billion dollars , amazing talent , decent human. I was out done with her for pushing the vax like she did. She made a mistake and paid for it with her life . This morning report is turbo cancer got her.
@Keith: “turbo cancer?”
Kate ,,by the time it’s discovered you’re dead. If first reports are accurate , they found this very recently. Claimed to be related to the clot shot.
Keith:
No reason whatsoever to blame her death on anything to do with the vaccine. I’ve argued on this blog over and over about this. Neither the research does nor the statistics support it. People have been dying quickly from certain forms of cancer (and/or late diagnoses) from time immemorial. I personally have known many people with extremely quick courses of cancer leading to death long long before COVID ever happened.
Kate:
Ever since the COVID shot, people who are against it ascribe any number of deaths to it that have no relation to it. Anyone who dies of cancer relatively quickly is said to have “turbo cancer” from the shot. It’s junk science. Of course, when a person who hasn’t had the shot dies, that’s from natural causes. But anyone who has had the shot and dies – even, like Parton, at the age of 80 – it’s said to be a consequence of the shot, especially if it’s a death from cancer that’s considered fast.
Thanks. I had not heard the term.
We had a friend whose brother lovingly cared for his dying wife, only to die himself a year later from cancer which possibly could have been treated had he taken care of himself while caring for his wife. Parton’s husband died just last year, and she said that she hadn’t been paying as much attention as she should to her own health.
Keith:
It was the Turbo Encabulator that got her after the jab.
Look it up on YouTube it is just as valid as your “turbo cancer.”
“I’m not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes,” Dolly Parton liked to say,
“because I know I’m not dumb. And I also know I’m not blonde.”. . . R.I.P.
She was eighty years old. There is no reason to assume anything untoward about her death.
— neo
This.
There may well be problems with the vaccines, and they were certainly forced on people using false claims, but they aren’t the universal murder tool too many right-wingers are talking about. They just aren’t. This is no different than the lefty ‘vaccines cause autism’ nonsense.
She was eighty. There is no mystery here, no reason to suspect nefarious forces in play.
Inspiring link on how she never forgot her origins:
“Inside the 2-room cabin where Dolly Parton grew up…”—
https://nypost.com/2026/08/26/real-estate/inside-the-2-room-cabin-where-dolly-parton-grew-up/
Hurricane Dolly forms in the Atlantic