American singer, songwriter and actress Dolly Parton died Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 80, according to reporting by Rolling Stone and Brazil's Folha de S.Paulo. The news was announced by her nephew, Bryan Seaver, who has served as her head of security for more than two decades, in a video posted to Facebook.
Rolling Stone reported that the cause of death was cancer, confirmed by Parton's representative, Marcel Pariseau, to People magazine. The specific type of cancer was not disclosed, but Parton had been hospitalized four days before her death. In a statement, her team said she 'spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched,' adding that her 'unmatched generosity reached the lives of countless people whom she would never meet.'
Born in Sevierville, Tennessee, Parton signed her first recording contract with Monument Records in 1965. Over a six-decade career she sold more than 100 million records, according to Rolling Stone. She wrote songs that became staples of American popular music, including 'Jolene,' 'Coat of Many Colors' and '9 to 5,' along with 'I Will Always Love You,' which Whitney Houston recorded for the 1992 film The Bodyguard and which sold more than 20 million copies in that version.
Style and influence
Beyond music, Parton built a visual persona recognized worldwide: platinum blond wigs, plunging necklines, sky-high heels and an extravagant wardrobe she herself nicknamed 'Backwoods Barbie,' according to a Folha de S.Paulo piece by Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times. Artist Andy Warhol once called her the 'glittering country goddess of Tennessee.' Standing five feet tall, Parton turned her own image into a tool of self-assertion, challenging stereotypes about female appearance with self-aware irony.
Parton also acted in film, making her debut in 1980's 9 to 5 alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Fonda mourned the death of her longtime friend and co-star, Folha reported. In 1986 Parton opened the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which helped cement her image as a benefactor of the Smoky Mountains region, an area of Appalachia in the southeastern United States. In the following decades she offered financial relief to wildfire victims in 2017, donated funds for Covid-19 vaccine research and founded the Imagination Library, a program that distributes children's books in multiple countries.
According to Rolling Stone, Parton influenced generations of artists who navigated the space between pop and country tradition, from Garth Brooks and Shania Twain to Miley Cyrus, as well as Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves, who has cited Parton as a direct influence on her own career.