Dolly Parton, the Queen of Country whose rhinestone-studded career made her one of the most beloved and unifying figures in American music, has died at the age of 80. The singer, songwriter and actress leaves behind a legacy that spanned more than half a century, from her dirt-poor childhood in the Smoky Mountains to global superstardom.
Parton was a cheerful contradiction: a salt-of-the-earth woman worth an estimated $650 million, a glamorous star who never lost the values of her two-room log cabin upbringing. She won 11 Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, sold more than 100 million records and released 49 solo albums. Her Imagination Library charity donated 100 million books to children around the world.
Her ability to bring people together was on full display at Glastonbury in 2014, when she drew an estimated 180,000 fans to the Pyramid Stage for the festival's Legends slot. Dressed in a rhinestone-encrusted suit, she joked about the mud on Worthy Farm and played a rhinestone-covered saxophone, performing «Yakety Sax» twice — once forwards and once with her back to the crowd. «I know it was corny, but it was fun,» she said afterwards.
Born Dolly Rebecca Parton in January 1946 in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, she was one of 12 children in a family that made its living from the land. Her mother Avie was a singer, and Dolly sang in church from the age of six. She learned guitar, performed on local TV and radio by age 10, and appeared on the Grand Ole Opry at 13. The day after graduating high school in 1964, she moved to Nashville, where she met Carl Dean, an asphalt paver she married two years later. Dean remained a mysterious figure throughout her career, always shunning the spotlight.
Parton's first big break came on The Porter Wagoner Show, where the titular star signed her for five years; she stayed seven. Her first charting song, «Dumb Blonde,» peaked at Number 24 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles list. When she decided to leave Wagoner, she wrote «I Will Always Love You,» which topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1974, following her previous single, the immortal «Jolene.» She was named the Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year in 1975 and 1976.
Parton's business instincts were as sharp as her songwriting. She controlled her own publishing rights almost from the start, and reluctantly refused Elvis Presley permission to cover «I Will Always Love You» because his manager demanded half the publishing. That decision paid off when Whitney Houston's version topped the Billboard chart for 14 weeks.
In interviews, Parton remained unfailingly positive and charismatic, staying apolitical while expressing sincere beliefs about fairness, kindness and respect for all. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, she donated $1 million to the development of the Moderna Covid vaccine. The world's first cloned mammal, a sheep, was named after her. She once told NME that lateness and complacency got her goat: «I get more pissed off. I take care of business however I need to do it.»