Dolly Parton Dies at 80 After Six Decades of Music

Dolly Parton, the legendary country music singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist, has died at the age of 80.

Her death was announced on Tuesday, August 25, by her nephew Bryan Seaver in an emotional video shared on Instagram. Seaver, who had served as Parton’s head of security for more than two decades, said the announcement was something she had asked him to make years ag

He described the moment as one filled with “absolute pride and great sadness,” adding that Parton had “lived in the light” and was now “in the arms of Jesus.” A cause of death has not been disclosed.

For more than six decades, Dolly Parton built a career that stretched far beyond country music. With songs such as “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” she became one of the most recognisable entertainers in the world and earned the enduring title of the Queen of Country.

Parton wrote more than 3,000 songs during her career and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. She won 10 Grammy Awards, received the Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award and became one of the rare artists whose influence crossed music, film, business and philanthropy.

From a Tennessee cabin to global stardom Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children. She grew up in a two-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains in a family she later described as “dirt poor.

Her father worked as a sharecropper before eventually owning a small tobacco farm, while her mother passed down a love of traditional songs and storytelling. Those early experiences would become a major part of the person and songwriter Parton eventually became.

After graduating from high school in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville the following day to pursue music. Her…