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Dolly Parton's team confirms she died after 'brief battle with cancer'
Dolly Parton’s team has confirmed the country music legend died after “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer”.
“Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” the statement continued.
Read the full report below:
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Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus said he loved Dolly Parton “with my whole heart” in a tribute to her on Instagram.
The post showed a picture of Cyrus, Parton, and Cyrus’ daughter, Miley Cyrus. Parton was Godmother to Miley, and the two have performed together over the years.
He said:
I have so many moments and memories with Dolly, it’s hard to know where to start. Like every little boy, I grew up loving Dolly Parton. She was a part of our lives, on our TV’s, right in our living rooms.
In 1992, I’ll never forget walking into her dressing room to apologize for all the tabloid stories which claimed I was having an affair with her. In true Dolly fashion, she just looked at me, winked and said, “Honey, this trash sells records!”
Dolly recently sent me a beautiful message, telling me she loved me with her whole heart. I will always love her in the same way ….. with my whole heart … and I always will.
Pitbull was amongst those who paid tribute to Dolly Parton during a concert in Wantagh, New York, Tuesday night, remembering the country music icon as someone who believed in him “when a lot of folks didn’t.”
Speaking to the crowd, Pitbull called Parton “a good human being with a good heart” and said she showed him “a whole lot of love” throughout his career before performing the song “Powerful Women,” which he collaborated on with Parton in 2024. The song is a reworking of her classic hit “9 to 5.”
He told the crowd:
She lived an amazing life. A hardworking woman – sophisticated, intelligent, funny, powerful, intimidating, but more than anything a good human being with a good heart …
To all the powerful women here tonight, this is dedicated to ya’ll, but more than anything to the legend that will live forever.
Dolly Parton. Cheers.
Rest in peace and rest in paradise Dolly Parton.
Pop star Katy Perry also paid tribute to Parton during her show in San Luis Potosí, Mexico last night.
She said:
Today, we lost one of the best songwriters that ever lived. Miss Dolly Parton.
Dolly Parton was an icon… She was constantly kind.
So I just want to send a little love to Little Miss Dolly Parton.
Singer Gwen Stefani posted a tribute on Instagram with a clip from when the singer performed on The Voice.
She wrote:
So heartbroken to hear about the loss of a true original and forever one of a kind.
Such an inspiration to us all. I was so lucky to work with you. There will never be another Dolly.
Here’s some more on Dolly Parton’s final interview, published in People magazine last week, where she said she was going through “hard times with my health”.
In the piece, published 21 August, the singer said she overlooked her own health while caring for her late husband.
Her husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025 aged 82.
She said:
I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.
It’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health. But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago.
I used to joke that I was the queen of the tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the queen of social media AI.
Seriously though, even though I’m still healing, I’m still working.
You can share your tributes and memories of Dolly Parton with the Guardian here.
Whether you have met her, or appreciated her work, if you are 18 or over you can send your stories to the Guardian’s community team.
Dollywood, a 165-acre family theme park co-owned by Dolly Parton in Tennessee, will remain open today after the singer’s passing.
The was rebranded to its current name in 1986 after Parton became co-owner.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts said on its website:
In her spirit, Dollywood will be open Wednesday, August 26 as Dolly wanted, always reminding everyone with her signature sparkle -- “the show must go on.”
A statement read:
With heavy hearts, the Dollywood family mourns the passing of our beloved Dreamer-in-Chief, Dolly Parton. Everyone at Dollywood shares the sorrow of countless people around the world touched by Dolly’s warmth, wisdom and generous spirit.
Dolly’s heartfelt wish was that Dollywood always remain a place of joy, hope and togetherness—a space where families and friends could honor her memory, not with silence, but with laughter, music and shared dreams.
From Jolene to Islands in the Stream, here are just 10 of Dolly Parton’s greatest contributions to the American musical lexicon, Rob LeDonne writes.
You can find some of her greatest hits in the piece here:
Jinkx Monsoon, the only two-time winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, said Dolly Parton was one of her first drag idols.
In a tribute on Instagram, Monsoon wrote: “The first Queen I worshiped– rest in power, goddess.”
US flags flown at half-mast in tribute to Dolly Parton
Signs, candles, cards, flowers and flags flown at half-mast for Dolly
An unexpected tribute from your supermarket aisle:
Australian supermarket chain Coles will be playing Dolly Parton’s music and greatest hits at its stores nationwide for an hour today, between 3-4pm. That’s for those not working 9-5.
Audience members gasped as news of Dolly Parton’s death was announced on stage before a UK performance of 9 To 5: The Musical.
Karla Tracey, who plays Parton’s character Doralee, broke the news to the audience at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing, West Sussex before paying tribute to the singer.
Tonight, we will perform the piece as she intended with great respect and affection for the woman whose vision brought it to life. “As we begin, we dedicate tonight’s performance to Dolly Parton, with our deepest thanks for the music, laughter and joy she gave us.
The LGBTQ community in the US is mourning the passing of ‘diva’ Dolly Parton, reports Agence France-Presse.
At a Washington gay bar, Cameron Austin donned a country western outfit replete with cowboy boots, as he sat in the corner sipping a drink while Dolly Parton’s “When I’m Gone” blasted through the sound system.
“I didn’t grow up listening to a lot of the gay icons that we typically think of, but she’s the one that’s been with me from the very start,” Cameron Austin, a 28-year-old east Tennessee native said at a party honoring the country superstar at a bar in Washington.
“Dolly was always there for me.”
In death, just as in life, Dolly Parton was a rare unifier in a highly polarized America.
Her legacy is being celebrated by the Trump-controlled White House, honky-tonks across the largely conservative US south, and – especially – in America’s gay bars.
In the rhinestone-clad, quick-witted country music queen, many gays and lesbians saw an unexpected but unwavering ally that advocated for their dignity and rights long before it was popular to do so.
Tom Jones said Dolly Parton’s death had left a “great emptiness”.
She had an angelic but powerful voice with vast influence on generations to come,” he wrote on Instagram. A wonderful and generous person with an amazing story, RIP Dolly.
Dolly, warmly remembered in the Castro district of San Fransisco.
Outside the Harvey Milk Plaza.
A Dolly fan.
Celine Dion has paid tribute to Dolly Parton, writing on Instagram: “Dolly… you were pure light, with a kind heart and a generous spirit.
We will now be missing one of the most joyful voices this world has ever known. Thank you for the music, the laughter, and the love you gave us all. We will always love you.
Taylor Swift is the latest star to pay tribute to Dolly Parton, describing her as a “dazzling” person, and a gift that “kept on giving”.
A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,” Swift began in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one.
She was truly the gift that kept on giving. Dolly gave us someone to look up to while encouraging us to be who we are as individuals. Somehow she was able to give us her lessons about the world gently and honestly, simultaneously, and oftentimes hilariously… She managed to give the world the ultimate mystery and fantasy in some corners of her life, but to give full transparency in the ways that counted. Somehow she was true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the softest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a backbone of steel to defend her own self worth as an artist.
She finished by saying:
Along with her other fans, I am so grateful for all of it. For the melodies and lyrics she wrote that thawed even the coldest hearts. For the millions of books she provided children all over the world so that they might fall in love with stories the way she did. For the tightropes she walked so that young girls like me could grow up dreaming of joining the circus too. Dolly, I’ll think of you each step of the way.
Dolly Parton was many things to millions of people – entertainer, songwriter, businesswoman, philanthropist, friend and inspiration. To those fortunate enough to know and work alongside her, she was also simply Dolly: warm, funny, thoughtful, generous and always deeply grounded in where she came from and the people she loved, writes the Associated Press.
Dolly often said that she had been blessed far beyond anything she ever dreamed possible, and she believed deeply that those blessings came with a responsibility to give something back,” said Jeff Conyers, president of The Dollywood Foundation.
That belief is woven into everything we do at The Dollywood Foundation. While we are heartbroken by her loss, the mission she gave us is as clear today as it has ever been, and it has ever been, and we will carry it forward for generations to come.
Bryan Armen Graham
There are not many people who could match Dolly Parton as a singular figure in American life, but Don King is surely one of them. The flamboyant and controversial boxing promoter, who turned 95 last week, has shared a remembrance of Parton on social media, describing her as a “dear friend” and offering a characteristically vivid farewell.
“I love Dolly Parton,” King said. “She was a dear friend. She’d be greatly missed here on earth, but she’d be eternally remembered spiritually. Let the Lord giveth and the Lord take it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Rest easy, Dolly, and keep a light in the window for me.”
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King and Parton made for unlikely contemporaries. Both emerged from improbable beginnings to become larger-than-life American pop-culture icons, rising to global prominence in the 1970s and remaining instantly recognizable for decades afterward. Parton grew up in a one-room cabin in rural Tennessee as one of 12 children. King, known for his gravity-defying shock of silver hair, listened to Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier’s first fight from prison in 1971; four years later, he promoted their third, the Thrilla in Manila.
Whether they were actually close is less clear. There appears to be no public record of a friendship between the pair, nor much evidence that their paths in the otherwise overlapping worlds of sports, entertainment and celebrity ever crossed publicly.
But King’s tribute was heartfelt nonetheless. And if nothing else, it was a case of game recognizing game: one unmistakable American original saluting another.
