Country music legend Dolly Parton dies at 80: family announces death in social media video

Dolly Parton, the American country music legend, songwriter and actress, died on Tuesday at the age of 80, her family announced in a video posted to social media by her nephew, Bryan Seaver.
Seaver said Parton had asked him years ago to deliver the message when the time came. “This video announcement is something Dolly asked me to do years ago, before I could fully grasp that it would one day become reality,” he said . The family statement added, “The sadness is with us, but not with Dolly. She lived her life” .
Parton, born on Jan. 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, rose from poverty as the fourth of 12 children in a family that often struggled to afford food. She began singing in church as a child and later appeared on local radio and television before moving to Nashville after high school. Her breakthrough came in the late 1960s alongside Porter Wagoner, with whom she performed on his television show before launching a solo career .
She wrote thousands of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” the latter originally penned as an expression of self-assertion when parting ways with Wagoner. The song later became a global hit when covered by Whitney Houston for the 1992 film *The Bodyguard* . Parton released over 50 studio albums, sold more than 160 million records worldwide and won 10 Grammy Awards from 55 nominations .
Beyond music, Parton built an empire that included Dollywood, a theme park in her home state of Tennessee, and the Imagination Library, a literacy program that has sent millions of free books to children. She also contributed funding to the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine .
In May 2026, Parton canceled concerts in Las Vegas due to health issues, including treatment for kidney stones, but assured fans she was not retiring. “Don’t worry about me getting out of the business, because: God hasn’t said anything about quitting,” she posted on Instagram at the time .
U.S. President Donald Trump ordered flags to be flown at half-staff for a week in her honor, calling her death “a great loss for millions of people” in a post on Truth Social .
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