Dolly Parton, Iconic Singer/Songwriter and ‘9 to 5’ Star, Dies at 80
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- Dolly Parton died peacefully on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 80, ending a career that crossed music, film, books, television, and theater over more than six decades.
- Parton wrote "I Will Always Love You" in 1973, a song that topped the country charts twice (1974 and 1982) before Whitney Houston's 1992 cover in "The Bodyguard" turned it into a global pop standard.
- Her 1980 film "9 to 5" cast her opposite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin and produced another #1 hit with the title song, cementing her as a movie star while earning a Golden Globe nomination for "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" two years later.
- Parton earned 11 Grammy Awards and 54 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- Her business empire included the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, consumer lines spanning food, cosmetics, and clothing, and the Imagination Library, which donated over 300 million free books to children around the world.
- Her life story musical "Dolly: A True Original Musical," with book and music penned by Parton herself, was turned into a Broadway-bound production in 2025 and is scheduled to premiere in December 2026.
Why it matters: The loss is sharpened by timing: Parton had just completed work on a Broadway-bound musical based on her own life story, set to premiere December 2026, meaning the show will now function as a capstone to her career rather than a new chapter. Her Death closes the book on a rare figure who crossed the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Hollywood blockbusters, and a philanthropic footprint measured in hundreds of millions of donated children's books.
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