Dolly Parton — the rhinestone-studded queen of country music who rose from a one-room Tennessee cabin to become one of the most beloved Americans of all time — has died at 80 after a secret battle with cancer.
The 'Jolene' hitmaker passed away peacefully Tuesday at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, surrounded by loved ones, her representatives confirmed.
"Our beloved Dolly Parton spent her life and career bringing joy, laughter, hope and integrity into everything she touched," her team said in a statement.
"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 disease had been kept private — a final act of grace from a woman who spent her life giving to others.
Stallone's wild horseback memory
Sylvester Stallone, who starred alongside Parton in the 1984 film 'Rhinestone,' paid an emotional tribute, recalling the fearless co-star who laughed after they were thrown from a horse.
"I just heard that Dolly Parton passed away, and this strikes me very hard, because I felt she was a brilliant woman, so outgoing, so nice," Stallone said. "She would come onto the set and say, 'Hi, y'all' to every one of the crew members. Everyone loved her, and I don't think people realize what a brilliant mind she had."
The action legend remembered a "crazy story" from their time filming together in Tennessee, when they rode a Tennessee Walking Horse together during a break from shooting.
"This thing was gigantic. It's like riding a building," Stallone recalled. "So I said, 'Dolly, you okay?' [She replied] 'Sure am, honey. Go ahead.' So I kicked the horse, and it starts moving. Prancing."
Then disaster struck.
"The horse stubs its toe. It trips, and then we start to roll forward. Oh, no. It's like everything's going in slow motion and Dolly's going, 'Are we falling?' I go, 'We are falling.'"
"This horse rolled all the way down. And we cascaded off of it and landed in the grass. And the horse rolled beside us. Oh my God, we would have been a couple of pancakes."
But true to form, Parton bounced back with a smile.
"She got up laughing and goes, 'Let's do that again,'" Stallone recalled. "I miss you Dolly. I love you. Sad."
Costner: 'I will always love you'
Kevin Costner, who starred in and produced the 1992 blockbuster 'The Bodyguard,' praised Parton for trusting him with her classic ballad 'I Will Always Love You' — the song that became Whitney Houston's signature hit.
"Oh my goodness. Where did you go Dolly? We are all breathless," Costner wrote on Instagram. "Thank you for trusting me with 'I Will Always Love You.' So gracious in all things."
Parton wrote and released the song in 1974 as a final goodbye to her mentor, Porter Wagoner, as she left his television series. Nearly two decades later, it became one of the best-selling singles of all time.
"We are all at a loss this moment," Costner added. "Forgive us, but we will miss you so much. So much."
A president's praise
Former President Barack Obama was among the political heavyweights who paid tribute to the Smoky Mountain songbird.
"It's hard to imagine many people having a bigger impact than Dolly Parton," Obama wrote on X. "Born in a one-room cabin, she earned 11 Grammys and an Emmy, built a business empire, helped millions of kids learn to read, and — as if that wasn't enough — helped accelerate the research that led to the Moderna COVID vaccine."
"What a life. Michelle and I are thinking of Dolly's family and her many, many fans."
Bill and Hillary Clinton also honored the icon, with the former president noting they first saw her perform in 1974 — a year before they married.
"Dolly Parton was one of a kind — a great songwriter and performer who told the stories of everyday Americans with honesty, humility, and heart," Bill Clinton wrote. "She rose high from her East Tennessee roots and never forgot where she came from."
Former Vice President Kamala Harris called Parton "a true American icon" and "one of one," noting her 11 Grammy awards, an Emmy, an honorary Oscar — and her favorite achievement: more than 300 million books sent to children worldwide through her Imagination Library.
More popular than presidents
She was, by the numbers, more beloved than any politician alive.
A March 2026 UMass/YouGov poll found 70% of Americans held a favorable view of the '9 to 5' singer — the highest approval rating of anyone surveyed, beating out Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelensky. Only 5% viewed her unfavorably.
She was twice as popular as Taylor Swift, who scored 35%.
The private life of a public woman
Behind the wigs and the sequins, Parton lived a remarkably private life with husband Carl Dean, whom she married in 1966. The couple never had children — a decision she spoke about candidly over the years.
"If we'd had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla," Parton once told The Guardian. "Anyway, we talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn't meant to be. Now that we're older? We're glad."
"Since I had no kids, and my husband was pretty independent, I had freedom," she said in 2020. "So I think a big part of my whole success is the fact that I was free to work."
Dean died in 2025 at age 82, ending a nearly six-decade love story that had quietly endured the glare of show business.
'Honky Tonk Angels together again'
The family of late country legend Loretta Lynn, who died in 2022, shared an emotional message remembering Parton as Lynn's "mountain sister."
"Dolly was an icon, a legend, a world unto herself. But even more, she was mom's friend. She was her 'mountain sister,'" the family said. "Honky Tonk Angels are together again."
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called her death "truly heartbreaking," writing: "Dolly Parton was an extraordinary person and an irreplaceable champion of the working class. We are a better country because of her."
Even the weather seemed to offer a bittersweet tribute: the fourth storm of this year's hurricane season is forecast to be named 'Dolly' — a coincidence forecasters insist is purely alphabetical, not celestial.
From a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains to the Vanderbilt Cancer Center, from 'Jolene' to the Imagination Library, Dolly Rebecca Parton never stopped giving. She was 80.
I News Australia Staff Writer contributed to this report.
