Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80

Known for her outsize persona, appearance and talent, she rose from rural poverty to become a top-selling singer, songwriter and entrepreneur. Dolly Parton in 1975. She was likened to the Big Rock Candy Mountain, the Depression-era symbol of abundance. Her music confronted privation and loss even as it radiated possibility and hope. Jack Manning/The New York Times Dolly Parton, a rhinestone-studded, rags-to-riches daughter of Appalachia who for six decades ruled country music — and much of pop culture — with an outsize personality and down-home wit that enshrined her as one of America’s most cherished originals, died on Tuesday in Nashville.

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Scoop News DeskNew York · Published Tuesday, August 25, 2026 at 12:48 PM UTCUpdated Wednesday, August 26, 2026 at 4:05 AM UTC

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1 confirmed death — Dolly Parton, 80. Parton’s health arose last year when she postponed a Las Vegas residency, and intensified to the point that she took to social media in October to announce, “I ain’t dead yet.” This May, she canceled the residency but said that she had responded well to treatment after her immune and digestive systems had, as she put it, “got all out of whack” in recent years.

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