https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/25/entertainment/dolly-parton-de...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/25/arts/music/dolly-parton-d..., https://archive.ph/w4vsE
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/music/music-news/dolly-par...
I’ve never been much of a country music fan, but I’ve always been a Dolly fan. Great songwriter, philanthropist, and seemed like a genuinely nice person. RIP, Dolly, you were one of the greats.
To me, apart from her amazing music and philanthropy, what Dolly Parton represents is something that was (emphasis on past tense) at one time truly exceptional about the United States - that someone from a very humble background (poverty in East TN) could have a tremendous impact on the culture of the world - the other example in entertainment being Michael Jackson (from Gary IN).
Admittedly the US music industry was among the few where this phenomenon happened, although definitionally very few reach pop stardom.
In contrast, much of the world exports only its "elite culture", not the culture of common people.
Don’t you still see this with hip-hop to some extent?
I also think a lot of the difference is that a much smaller percentage of the population grows up as poor as she did. A person from a similar wealth/income percentile today mightn’t seem to have had such a difficult start.
Obviously lots of other things are different today – it’s easier than ever to access a wide variety of music but that’s not what people tend to do (iirc); there’s less money to be made selling music; there’s perhaps less interest in more ‘rural’ genres of music.
Your contention is what, that now this is no longer possible or less likely?
See also Britney Spears, who's mom ran a small daycare. Taylor Swift's an in between story, middle class financial services parents, hard to say if they were paycheck to paycheck or not...
Its not necessarily the best thing that big companies have a business model of taking advantage of poor, or relatively poorer, people, particularly attractive young women. See our global Epstein class and global Weinstein class.
Taylor Swift's parents spent 1 Mil+ on her career. I wouldn't call that middle class.
Calling Swift middle class and that they were possibly paycheck to paycheck is laughable.
Her father had a huge role to play in her success with his business deals and would largely be considered upper middle class if not higher. If anything, Taylor’s story reinforces the idea that families with wealth offer easier paths in life for their children.
IIRC he worked for a large financial services company (Merrill Lynch?) and was able to transfer to the Nashville office so that Taylor could be closer to the music scene.
“Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gifted over 318 million free books to children worldwide since its inception”
Amazing contributions to many aspects of life
Daughter loves getting these in the mail, and this paragraph is absolutely right!
>> That year, Parton explained that as well as improving child literacy, “it’s the fact they get recognised. They get this little book with their little name on it in the mail, and they feel special. They start taking pride in themselves, and they know that somebody out there is thinking of [them].”
I'm in a borough of London, and did a bit of a double-take when they told me that Dolly Parton would be sending my daughter a book every month. But indeed she did, and it had exactly that effect, and now she's an absolutely avid reader.
Thank you, Dolly. That meant a lot to us, and millions upon millions of other people too.
My son loves them too!
As a kid growing up in Tennessee I was the beneficiary of several of her reading programs. They really helped to foster a sense of curiosity and wonder that live with me to this day. Dolly was a real one, she'll definitely be missed.
Yeah, it is such an amazing program that was just executed in the right way. She didn't see it hit the billion books like she wanted to in her lifetime, but I'm sure they will get there. I would love to know other examples of philanthropy like that are similar in impact?
[1] https://imaginationlibrary.com/ [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/03/01/589912466/dolly-p...
My toddler gets a book a month in the mail from Dolly's Imagination Library and we keep reading some almost every day. She's made an impact in so many families <3
I agree but I came across Dolly Parton syrup in the grocery store once. Had to say for all the good, that felt a bit odd, strange and out of place with Dolly’s character.
Huh, looks she has an entire food line. Wonder if this is planned to be an income stream for some of her charities, similar to Newman's Own.
A fun YouTube video of Dolly Parton in an Irish pub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdKrv1Vh-g
“Dolly Parton makes an impromptu appearance at Páidí Ó Sé’s pub in Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry and takes to the stage to entertain the locals.
While on holiday in Kerry, singer Dolly Parton paid a visit to former Kerry footballer Páidí Ó Sé’s pub, where she performs her song ‘Coat of Many Colours’ accompanied by musicians Steve Cooney and Seamus Begley.
Dolly signs off at the end of her performance,
Thank you very much and welcome to Dinglewood
This episode of Cursaí was broadcast on 1 October 1990.”
Very cool video and respect to the guitar player for gracefully handling a once in a lifetime opportunity.
That's Steve Cooney. It was Dolly got the one in a lifetime opportunity.
Amazing share! What a performer. What a life.
If anyone hasn't listened to "Dolly Parton's America" (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/dolly-partons-america), I highly recommend it.
Does a great job interviewing Dolly and discussing with her (and those two are around her) who she is, her life events, her thoughts on life. I knew people loved Dolly Parton before I listened but didn't really know why and the podcast helped me understand a bit more of it. It features a LOT of one-on-one time with Dolly in a way that I don't often find docu-series do. It's fantastic!
My favorite Dolly story that she sometimes tells in talk shows was when she heard about a Dolly Parton Look Alike contest and entered it. She came in second place.
One minor fact about Dolly I've always found fascinating is that she was married to the same dude for almost 60 years, until he passed away recently. I mean, being as famous as she was as an entertainer - that just seems like an extreme anomaly.
I guess the fact that I'm not mildy surprised that people can be married for 60 years says something about how different our cultures are? Even though we're on HN discussing so many other things we have in common.
I think money, fame, celebrity status, etc. often creates pressures on the relationship.
Kind of like how it sometimes pushes people into drug addictions. That's a stereotype that we've all heard about since kids, but it wasn't until relatively recently that I thought about it seriously that it occurred to me that a touring celebrity musician's life can be stressful and the drugs can be (or start out as) a pressure valve release. I think that part of it clicked to me when I heard a musician being interviewed about it, I forget which. Maybe it was a Beatle talking about their early amphetamine days.
Re the drug addictions - another thing to note about touring musicians is that there's a lot of downtime. New cities every day, not much to do until your show in the evening. Pretty easy to slip into unhealthy habits.
I had a friend in the mid-90s that was in a mildly successful band. They did a few national tours as opener for bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I met up with him once while he was out on tour. I was thinking he was living his best life, like he was gonna brag about the lifestyle. Just the opposite. He hated touring, said it was very stressful, and that he just wanted to eat a home-cooked meal and sleep in the same bed more than two nights in a row. And yes, he said industry folks were constantly pushing free drugs.
Divorce is rampant among celebrities in the USA. Maybe not worldwide?
It's not unheard of. But I guess it's a mix of several small factors:
1. divorce rates have been rising for decades.
2. 60 years is a very long time, and that means Dolly would have had to marry around 18-20. Marrying that young these days for my generation very much is an anomaly, and people are putting off marriage more and more these days.
3. Celebrity culture in particular has a much more tumultuous relationship. In a number of cases, marriage may simply be another influential tool to manage fame and wealth rather than an act of love and caring.
Paul Newman I think. Same thing. He was also married to the same person for decades.
Yeah and just like Dolly, someone we need more of.
Her husband was Carl Dean.
De mortis nil nisi bonum, as they say.
I put her in my pantheon with Johnny Cash. Turns out Cash introduced her on her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959, when she was 13. She killed it. Parton said later she was best friends with Johnny and June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcfyzJW-BA4
I don't think I've ever seen the interwebs talking about one thing as much as right now.
When Michael Jackson died, reaction online was so sudden it made Google search backend stumble... They didn't have a solution to auto-hotspot-protect half the planet searching his name suddenly.
I'll be interested to see if the mitigations hold today.
I am from the wrong continent to be inculcated in country music from an early age, but I read books distributed from her program every week to the niece. So that's probably her more durable contribution to society, I think.
Something tells me that the songs and films will outlast the books program, but hopefully it's making a difference in the lives of kids. There's no telling how far reaching that can end up being.
Well, as long as the songs and films continue to make her estate money, I imagine she planned to continue sending out books.
On the flipside, how many individual lives have been changed by the books provided to families for free? Impossible to quantify but I'd argue extremely important.
> "wrong continent to be inculcated in country music"
A humorous response to whenever someone says "country music" is: "Which country?"
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You cannot separate that ideology (like any ideology) from the practitioners, and the biggest practitioner was unquestionably Sam Bankman-Fried. I'm not a fan.
Ridiculous, because EA says the ends justify the means, whereas Ms. Parton demonstrated the importance of the ends and the means.
The public will not mourn any EA the way that Dolly is being mourned.
It is your silly assertion that is what is entirely fucked up about techbros and politics today.
Lmao “You like nice things happening. You must be a fan of my weird techbro scam cult, that invented doing nice things”
There's nothing techbros culture can't reinvint, claim as their own, and charge a subscription for it
The US's only secular saint. Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects.
At least, since Fred Rogers died.
Fred was a very respected man, but Dolly is also loved. The grief for many is real and most never even met her.
To be fair Fred Rogers was a minister, but I would agree that his message to kids was mostly secular.
yeah she's a treasure to pretty much everyone.
No I'm guessing that she arranged for a small personal ceremony only - insisting on that would be in line with her character.
Dollywood can hold more people than a football stadium. Probably will.
Its a nice theme park. She bought it because she thought it would be cool to have a really awesome theme park in TN. She was both correct and successful. It's pretty cool.
"Her memorial service will need to be held in a football stadium to handle the number of people who want to pay their last respects"
Way bigger. Dolly was beloved by millions, if not billions of people worldwide.
You'd need an area the size of Tennessee itself for the memorial service.
Random fact, Dolly the cloned sheep was named after Dolly Parton:
"Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn't think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_(sheep)
In the end I think her generosity outshone her other famous attributes.
The past really is a foreign country.
When I was in elementary school Dolly Parton boob jokes made the rounds. I think we've all adjusted our view of her as a person since those days
There are different standards expected of schoolboys compared to respected scientists announcing historic breakthroughs.
I still remember how hard I was struck by the scene in The Orville, where someone from another planet hears a Dolly Parton song playing and asks who it is. He goes on to say, "She speaks with the might of a hundred soldiers!"
She did. She is one of our species' great poets.
That was a really great cameo.
The more & More I learned about her over the years, It felt like she just never seamed to give into the system and always found a way to keep give back to the world that corrupts so many.
She made money doing what she loved, and gave a huge amount of it away to help others. Can't ask for better than that, she will be missed.
We used to play Coat of Many Colors a lot in my house when I was a kid.
My coat of many colors
That my mama made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
Well, I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My mama made for me
Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that. Its actually nice to know that Dolly got to hear/see/meet Sierra.. One of a few who might be able to haul a chunk of Dolly's influence forward.
> Sierra Ferrell does a pretty good rendition of that.
Emmylou Harris does a great one also.
Brandi Carlile and I'm With Her just covered this at their stadium concert in Madison, WI last night. Eerie.
TBF, there are probably 100s of Dolly covers being done nightly. I just played Do I Ever Cross Your Mind a few nights ago with my bar band.
What an amazing woman and person in general.
I wish other celebrities did as much as her. Her Imagination Library (https://imaginationlibrary.com) is just one example of her giving back to the community.
My mother was a die hard Dolly fan. We even visited Dollywood when I was a kid. One of her favorite movies was with Dolly and Sylvester Stallone called Rhinestone. She watched it repeatedly, and there are quotes from it that are taking up precious space in the ol' memory banks.
If you've never heard the 45 of Jolene played at 33, give it a listen.
Rhinestone! I just watched for first time the other day. I had made my partner watch Rocky to see a different side of Stallone, and she is a huge Dolly Parton fan.
Rhinestone was hilarious and great to watch just because Stallone and Parton were having _so much fun_ together. No sense of sexual attraction, just having a damn great time having fun. Could not help but enjoy that, separate from it genuinely being a fun movie.
Dolly Parton was an incredibly savvy business person, talented songwriter and performer, and an outstanding human being. One in a billion.
I will always remember her appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert where she moved him to tears with an a cappella song: https://youtu.be/R91VssUiGiY
It's heartening to see tributes and obits in publications worldwide. All respectful, and genuinely bereft. One obit, though, stood out to me from the dozen or so I've read so far. It's this one [0] in the FT, which I think deserves a wider audience [1].
[0] https://www.ft.com/content/c57569fb-c1ee-476a-aa31-d402e2f3b...
Outside of her impact on the music industry she also had an outsized impact on families with young children.
She started a charity called Imagination Library [1] that sends free monthly books to children under six in the US, Canada and even expanded to the UK, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. I will always be grateful for this.
Somehow "USS Dolly Parton" has a bit of a ring to it for the next US warship after the "USS Dorie Miller".
RIP. We went to Dollywood last year and I highly recommend it! It was a fun, family-friendly park, and one of the things I was impressed by was how helpful and happy to be there all the workers were. Seemed like a bunch of friendly veterans who took our tickets and let us in.
And it's so clean! Makes The Magic Kingdom look like a toxic waste dump. Also has great rides. Can't recommend Dollywood enough.
More focus on the ride theming makes it a standout park in the USA. Also no students being exploited as interns for work programs which is a nice change.
Dolly Parton's Stampede is a good time as well. Don't read too much into it if you go lol
9 to 5 is such a great song. Adding it as I don't see it linked here. Strong pro-worker message too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbxUSsFXYo4
The movie is snare-drum-tight scriptwriting. Great flick.
the story of how she wrote this is fantastic.
Feynman was apparently a fan, too. His name for quarks was "partons". She just played the dumb showbiz blonde, or as she said "it takes a lot of money to look this cheap". Others in this discussion have more to say about this, but - she was obviously a super nice and thoughtful person.
Here's my favorite track of hers, Todd Terje mix of "Jolene": https://youtu.be/Xkl36pu8aLY
Miley Cyrus is Dolly Parton's god daughter, Miley did a really phenomenal version of “Jolene” - probably my favourite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwblaKmyVw - She also did a great version together with Dolly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINEaGraHMc
End of an era. She was a very active philanthropist and will be dearly missed for all the good she brought to the world.
Dolly Parton's film production company Sandollar produced the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_(film...
I grew up in East TN, and this feels like the death of Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, and your favorite fun aunt all rolled up into one. Except no one had a bad word to say about Dolly. She was beloved around the world, but she was an institution back home.
I grew up in Kentucky, so Dolly still felt like a sweet distant aunt that nobody ever had a harsh word about. Went to Dollywood several times as a kid.
My hope is that people will try an emulate her charity and compassion.
If you are curious to know more about Dolly, I wholeheartedly recommend the podcast series “Dolly Parton’s America”. One of the best podcast series I’ve listened to and gave me so much respect for Dolly. The world is a little dimmer without her in it!
I was in awe of her books for kids program.
Simple, direct philanthropy that helps any/all kids:
Shameless plug for the Dolly Parton Book Club, for which you can register your child (even not yet born) and they will send them a free age-appropriate book every month until they turn 5. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
Very sad to hear. Rest in peace.
I was at Dollywood a few weeks ago. I highly recommend a visit if you ever get the chance. She has a fantastic legacy in more ways than one.
Fun fact: Dolly, the cloned sheep, was named after Dolly Parton. The sheep was cloned from a mammary gland cell, so...
I'm going home, I'm going home...
Long As I Can See The Light: https://youtu.be/tMgyIUvz9ak?si=zZq0yHRHmGl7LsFB
If anyone wants to listen to an underrated Dolly track, my rec is Silver Dagger.
You know how, sometimes, you downright think "that is impossible!", with certain people, when you hear of their death. And then, of course, you realize ...
This.-
Her playing at Glastonbury here in the UK only seems like the other day, but I just checked and it's been _12 years_! She played her most popular songs and the audience treated her like the star she was. What an incredible, talented, kind-hearted woman. An inspiration to so many for all the best reasons.
I originally had no idea Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" was a Dolly Parton cover.
Whitney's version gives you goosebumps; Dolly's original will make you cry.
And written the same day she wrote Jolene
An icon, one of the best of us and a true one of one
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been gifting free books to kids from birth to age 5 for over three decades: https://imaginationlibrary.com/
She always seemed so full of life, it's difficult to believe she's gone.
Her father couldn't read so she built a program that mails 3.5 million books to children every month.
That's an amazing contribution to literacy
The woman wrote Jolene. If that doesn’t get you to heaven then nothing will.
Wow. I knew she was close but still. She has always held her in a special place in my heart as I am sure so many else do. I hope there is a national day of mourning. And parades. She would've like parades
In an odd coincidence, Jolene by Dolly Parton played on YouTube Music as I drove home with my daughter. When we got home, my wife told me Dolly Parton had died. I don't listen to much of her though I'm fond of this song, and we get the Imagination Library books. Seems like she was good person, and a great singer and songwriter.
One of the most generous music artists to have lived. Dolly's legacy will greatly outlive her.
Stars who were born into poverty sometimes struggle with being generous (Charlie Chaplin for example). But that certainly didn't seem to be an issue for Dolly. What a life.
My daughter loves Dolly from her books and I love reading to her. What a win win, RIP Dolly you are a class act.
Amazing human who popularized the amazing Country Music. Listening to Country Music radio all day as respects.
I found this remix music video strangely hypnotic when I happened across it.
My wife is at an eye appointment. I have no idea what to expect when she gets home. After Dolly's super bowl performance my wife (and her mother) were crying at just the thought of her passing away.
Dolly was one of the unequivocal good ones. Damn girl, RIP.
One of THE best humans to have ever graced this planet. I've never heard a single negative thing about her. I wish I believed in heaven.
In regard to heaven, you don't need to believe for her - she believed.
in some sense, the collection of innumerable entirely positive memories effect one aspect of heaven for her, i believe.
I will be crying 9-5 today.
Sad news - she was a treasure.
I guess this is why English Wikipedia was down. It's back up now.
She was truly a gem. Beautiful inside and out. May she rest in peace.
We need more celebrities to step up like Dolly. You will be missed.
I knew she had been sick recently but always assumed she'd bounce back.
We're worse off.
some people are really sick but it's not evident because they keep it concealed
Also when you are 80 something can go from a bit of a cold to deadly dangerous real quick.
I saw Dolly at Hardly Strictly in 2005. She was great.
She was such an impressively kind person.
Heartbreaking. Rest in peace Dolly.
RIP. One of the last real ones.
I remember in the early-80s, maybe 5th grade, being taught fractions, specifically the "Dolly Parton fraction", where the numerator is larger than the denominator. I've got a feeling they don't teach that anymore.
RIP Dolly, she was a good one.
She was, I believe, the largest or one of the largest private donors to the moderna covid vaccine
Here is her families statement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9govup-IG3c
It was a $1 million donation to Vanderbilt in April 2020 to support three COVID research projects, including one related to the Moderna vaccine:
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...
Thank you
It’s interesting that she never got any flak for it from conspiracy theorists. I guess they realized she was so beloved she was untouchable.
People suspected the health news in the last ~months before to be more serious than initially alleged to not be serious at all. Now they were confirmed.
Of all her songs I think Jolene is by far the most interesting. Several copied the song, such as Miley Cyrus, and while not bad, it seems to not quite capture the underlying idea of the song. I have a hard time Miley being as plausible in the "please don't steal my man just because you can" compared to Dolly. It's like a whole generation in between and the lyrics just don't really fit much at all to Miley, even if one reasons that it is the melody that is more important - but even then, Miley's voice seems to fit to other songs better than happy-go-lucky country songs.
Make time to listen to Dolly Parton's America podcast:
She did so much for children's literacy, underserved children have benefited from her reading program. I support her book club because it makes humans smarter. The world really lost a great spirit.
Dolly Parton seemed nice on that episode of The Orville.
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very, very sad. she was such a good person in this age of trump especially in the country music scene
Even if, say, hypothetically, that I agreed with you, we don't need to bring up that name in association with this perfect angel of a lady on this sad day.
Let's just say that she's a wonderful person and an excellent example and leave it at that.
It is a lot easier to appreciate the light when you're aware of the dark.
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the unifying power of dolly actually forced him to transcend even that. apparently he had nothing but nice things to say about her (and nothing about himself) on truth.
Don't you see the irony in complaining about a hypothetical scenario in which Trump makes Dolly Parton's death about himself under a submission completely unrelated to Donald Trump?
Let's not even waste time thinking about that cretin when we have someone much better, and something sadder, to consider at the moment.
Her vocals were exceptional, too. One of my favorite videos I've randomly come across on YouTube is "Jolene" slowed down to 33 RPM [0]. The comments are hilarious as well, but the clarity of her vocals and the vibrato that carries through to a slower tempo is really something special to hear.
0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doz1QJ7LwjA
She's one of those crossover performers, such as Kenny Rogers and Taylor Swift who escape Country music as a genre and get mass appeal. Whenever I comment about a Dolly Parton song playing in a public place I hear things like "She's a national treasure!"
Rogers crossed over into country.
My ex-wife was a big Kenny "The Country Version" Rogers fan. I chuckle to myself every time I watch The Big Lebowski and hear Rogers singing his psychedelic "Just Checked In" and wonder what the ex would think of his origins.
Her cover of Stairway to Heaven is definitely crossover at its best
Definitely my favorite version of that song!
Oh. You weren't kidding! It's good. They avoid all the traps, like not trying to outdo Jimmy Page's guitar solo.
Then you will love "The chipmunks at 16 speed"
https://chipmunkson16speed.bandcamp.com/album/vol-1
For a second I misread that as "The chipmunks at 16X speed" and was seriously confused.
Sometime she changed the RPMs herself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEpoLeISCo
The guitar is also immaculate slowed down and that was her too. I always thought it was some hotshot Nashville session musician. One of the best guitar licks of all time.
She was certainly a fine guitarist, but Wikipedia says you were right first time, it was a session player called Chip Young.
Made famous by the show The Blacklist
Agreed. The climbing voice in Jolene was my favourite of her vocal range. She was a pretty good singer too; not as good as e. g. Ariana Grande in her own prime (before chasing bulimia) but quite good nonetheless.
She was a loving wife to her husband and a great entrepreneur in addition to being a prolific artist. It's hard to find someone so well rounded at so many things before even adding that most of the jobs she created were/are considered positive contributions to society, evenly spread between entertainment, hospitality, foodservice, and adjacent industries. I think I heard she was directly responsible for about 20k total jobs which is INSANE.
What a positive legacy to leave - good example for others.
Same.
I don't really like country music, but Dolly always seemed somewhat down-to-earth and pretty decent.
Thankfully we have Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, the White Stripes, etc for you
I wouldn't ever say I was a fan per se. But she was always the go-to example of "this is what billionaires should be doing with their money". So I respected the hell out of her.
Of course, she also proves the very point of there being no ethical billionaire, being "only" worth some 450 million instead. Likely because she gave so much of her wealth back to her communities instead. RIP Dolly, indeed.