Singer, songwriter, actress, entrepreneur and philanthropist, “The Queen of Country”, Dolly Parton, has died at the age of 80, at her home in Nashville, Tennessee.
With a career spanning seven decades, Dolly Parton was one of the most successful and beloved figures in American music.
She was not only a performer but a prolific songwriter whose compositions became standards of popular music including all-time hits such as “Jolene”, “9 to 5”, and “I Will Always Love You,” which was later made famous around the world by Whitney Houston. Parton’s rep, Marcel Pariseau, confirmed to Rolling Stone, that her cause of death was cancer.
Parton won multiple Grammy Awards and received numerous other honors during her career. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for “9 to 5,” and became one of the rare country artists to achieve enormous success across music, film and television.
Her career, extending far beyond music, included films like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias, while building a major entertainment business around Dollywood, her theme park in Tennessee. Parton was also known as a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights in later years.
Parton was also known for her philanthropy. Through the Dolly Parton Foundation and its Imagination Library, she supported children’s literacy by providing free books to children around the world.
Born into a large working-class family in rural Tennessee, Parton drew heavily on her Appalachian upbringing throughout her music and public life. She transformed those roots into a career that reached far beyond country music, becoming an enduring American cultural icon.
Her representatives and family confirmed she passed away at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center after a brief battle with cancer, as reported by BBC News.
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