Dolly Parton, music star, actor and beloved figure who spanned generations, dies at 80

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (WINK) — Dolly Parton, one of the most groundbreaking and successful musicians in the history of country music, with a hitmaking career that spanned six decades and launched her into TV and movie stardom, has died, her family announced Tuesday. She was 80.

Since breaking onto the country music scene with her 1967 debut "Hello, I'm Dolly," Parton never seemed to slow down, releasing nearly 50 studio albums and selling over 100 million records.

A prolific songwriter, she won 10 Grammys and earned 55 nominations.

But she treated her success with a certain modesty. In 2022, when she was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, she tried to pull herself out of the running, saying she didn't feel that she had "earned that right." Her peers and fans vehemently disagreed.

In a 2022 interview on "CBS Mornings," she called it "an honor" to have so many loyal fans, but added that "it scares me to death sometimes. I'm always sayin' I'm not all that, I'm even not all there sometimes."

Born on Jan. 19, 1946, Parton grew up in poverty in rural Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children.

"Well, what they call 'white trash,' I don't like anybody else calling me that, but to be called a hillbilly, I always take pride in that," she told CBS News in a 2016 interview.

She explained that she honed her distinctive look and style from a woman she knew who she described as a "town tramp" — upending expectations of how she should look and dress. 

"And she wore the makeup, red nails, red high heels, tight clothes," Parton told CBS News. "I just thought she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen. And people say, 'Oh, she ain't nothing but trash.' But in my mind, I thought, 'That's what I'm going to be when I grow up.'"

Her first No. 1 country hit came in 1970 with "Joshua," but it was 1973's "Jolene" that made her a household name.

"I remember this little redheaded girl with green eyes, prettiest little thing, and I said, 'Well, what's your name?' And she said, 'Jolene.' I said, 'I love that name.' All the way back to the bus I was [singing], 'Jolene, Jolene, Jolene,' so I wouldn't forget the name," Parton told CBS News in 2019.

After a string of successful albums in the 1970s, she set her sights on Hollywood, making her major film debut in the 1980 feminist comedy classic "9 to 5," alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, playing Doralee, a secretary who takes on her sexist boss. The movie was a huge hit and also earned Parton an Oscar nomination for the song of the same name.

Two years later, she starred in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination for best actress.

She went on to star alongside Sally Field, Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine in 1989's "Steel Magnolias."   

Parton was renowned for her musical collaborations with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Loretta Lynn and Willie Nelson. In 1983, she recorded "Islands in the Stream" with Kenny Rogers, a song that had been penned by the Bee Gees. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

She released "I Will Always Love You" in 1974, but it took on a second life when it was recorded by the late Whitney Houston for the 1992 film "The Bodyguard." Parton said it didn't bother her that many mistakenly assumed Houston wrote the song.

Her longevity in the music industry was staggering, setting a Guinness World Record for the longest span of No. 1 hits on the country charts for a female artist at 43 years, from 1977 to 2020.

Showing a keen business acumen, Parton in the mid-1980s bought a stake in a theme park in Knoxville, Tennessee, that was subsequently renamed Dollywood, and continues to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. Parton would perform frequently at the park. 

Over the years, she also became known for giving back. She launched her Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to help boost graduation rates in the community where she grew up. Her commitment to education continued when Dollywood announced in 2022 that it would pay full tuition and fees for any employee who chose to pursue higher education. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Parton donated $1 million for medical research at Vanderbilt University that helped lead to the lifesaving Moderna vaccine.

"I'm just happy that anything I do can help somebody else," she said at the time. "When I donated money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to do good and evidently, it is. Let's just hope we find a cure real soon."

Recognizing her long history of philanthropy, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his partner, Lauren Sanchez, honored Parton in 2022 with a $100 million Courage and Civility award, with the money to be directed toward charities of her choice.

Parton was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025 at the age of 82. The couple never had children, a conscious choice Parton told CBS News she didn't regret.

"It wasn't meant to be," she said. "And I don't regret it. I never regretted it. I mean, it was a choice. So, you make your choices, you make your sacrifices, and I never looked back. I knew early on that I was gonna walk that road till God told me to stop. And I'm still walking it, and he ain't said nothing to me about quittin' yet!"