Farewell to Dolly Parton: the overflowing queen of country, beloved by generations for iconic hits like "I Will Always Love You," "9 to 5," and "Jolene," has closed her eyes forever in Nashville at the age of 80, after a year marred by a series of unspecified health problems that forced her to cancel a residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and then, more recently, take to the streets to reassure fans: "I'm not dead yet."
In August, the latest event was canceled at Dollywood, her theme park at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. The news of her passing was announced by her nephew Bryan Seaver in a video posted on social media: "She died peacefully."
Parton was above all a singer, but not only: an author (a novel in 2022 in collaboration with the king of thrillers James Patterson), a film actress, an entertainer, an entrepreneur, and a philanthropist, the story of the exuberant proto-feminist from Appalachia's rise from poverty has entered the collective imagination of America of all political stripes and social classes thanks to songs like "Coat of Many Colors" and "My Tennessee Mountain Home."
For years, Dolly had a secret: her love affair with Carl Dean. The owner of a road-paving company, her husband, who had been by her side behind the scenes for six decades, had made her fall in love at 18 and had been Jolene's inadvertent inspiration.
Carl died in March 2025, and Dolly hasn't been the same since. Despite having refused Donald Trump's offer of a Medal of Freedom and being clearly allergic to the tycoon's policies (among her many challenges, the massive donation that at the beginning of Covid contributed to research on pandemic vaccines by the pharmaceutical company Moderna), Parton was essentially a unifier.
"Is there anything we can all agree on?" the New York Times asked in 2019. "Yes, Dolly Parton." And today the president pays tribute to her: "This is a tremendous loss for millions of people. There never was, nor will there ever be, another like her. In her honor, I order the American flag to be lowered at half-staff throughout the United States for one week."
