When Holland told me this morning, that Dolly had died - I wasn't surprised.
Sad.
Not surprised.
I had been thinking about her a lot the past few days … last night, I even checked online to see if she was still earth-bound. She was: last night.
It's pretty common for senior widows to follow their spouse in death.
I expected that to happen with me, when Bob's spirit stepped off earth. But Elohim - and Bob - had other Plans for how the end of my Life would play out. Apparently, Elohim still has something here, for me to complete. And Bob, himself, said, "I want you to remarry, Val; you have a lot of love to give. You need to be married": I did not want to hear that, and I said as much to Bob. He just smiled his sexy smile at me, and said, "I want you to remarry." Elohim deliberately made sure my footpath & Holland's footpath, crossed. And I'm pretty sure Bob would have liked Holland - if they had met: Bob had a wild streak, too 😉
Coming up on my 70th BD in December, I am poignantly aware that I, myself, am in my last phase of Life: and if I am granted another year, I will officially mark a year older that Bob never got to do. I have also been noticing that people I've know all my life … and entertainment icons, who have been with me most of my adult years - are no longer walking Earth. I do not dwell on the morbidity, but I am aware of it, with every unexpected phone call & every newsfeed headline.
And so, with this current reminder of just how fast life goes by; I plan to do a whole lot more living with the time I have left. Holland has been informed 😘 that his "little spicy wife" still has a bit of wild in her and wants to go run the gambit having as much fun as I can squeeze into my days & gather as many memorable memories as I can fill my gray matter & heart with. Thankfully, he is on board with that.
I may not have the $$$$$ that Dolly generated - but, I DO have the moxie. And a man willing to help me make as much as my dreams happen, that is affordable to make happen ❤️
********************
{{Dolly Parton, country music legend, dies at 80, just 4 days after saying, 'I still have so many things I want to achieve'
* Legendary singer-songwriter Dolly Parton has died at age 80
* Parton’s career spanned decades and included Grammy wins, film roles and, later in life, a musical inspired with her life titled Dolly
* Parton was preceded in death by her husband of more nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025
~Story by Victoria Edel
Legendary singer-songwriter and country music icon Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.
In addition to her groundbreaking work as a singer-songwriter, Parton also starred in movies like ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Steel Magnolias’
Dolly Parton ca. 1976; Dolly Parton in October 2021
Her nephew revealed the news in an Aug. 25 Instagram video.
Parton shared an update on her health on Friday, Aug. 21, acknowledging her recent decline after the March 2025 death of her husband, Carl Dean.
“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl. You know, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to manage something like this. Back in the early ’80s, I was down for several months with female issues, and I was struggling with my weight at the time too, so it’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health,” Parton told PEOPLE.
She added: “But I think because we live in a 24/7 world with social media, everything gets magnified in ways it wasn’t years ago. I used to joke that I was the Queen of the Tabloids, but now I guess I can say I’m the Queen of Social Media AI! Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’! You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”
With a distinguished career that lasted decades, Parton is the best-selling female country music artist of all time, having sold more than 160 million albums worldwide. Her debut album was 1967’s Hello, I’m Dolly, and she went on to release a slew of hits, including “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5” and “Jolene.”
Parton was born in Pittman Center, Tenn., in 1946. She had 11 siblings, and the family was poor. “We never actually starved, but sometimes we never had quite enough to eat,” she told PEOPLE in 1977. At age 6, she began playing her first guitar and singing in her grandfather’s church. She started writing songs a year later.
Porter Wagoner (left) and Dolly Parton in 1967.
Though she was known for her glamor as an adult, she told PEOPLE in 2003 that growing up, “I had freckles and a gap in my teeth. Everything was homemade or hand-me-downs. . . . I always wanted to be prettier. I got to fixin’ myself up. I wanted my clothes tight, my makeup bright, my nails long, my lips red. I got into it.” Over her career, she received considerable attention for her dramatic appearance, but she was always the first one to make a joke of it.
After her high school graduation, she moved to Nashville in 1964. She played in clubs and wrote songs for other artists. She told PEOPLE in 2012, “My songs got me out of the mountains and took me everywhere I’ve wanted to go.” Her big break came when country star Porter Wagoner hired her to be his sidekick on The Porter Wagoner Show. He helped her land a record deal, but her early successes were all duets with her costar.
“I’ll always be a country musician because I’m a country girl,” she told PEOPLE in 1975. “My style is my soul and my feelings. I’ll tell the world in my songs what I wouldn’t have told my mother.”
Dolly Parton in 1984.
In 1971, she had her first country No. 1 with “Joshua.” “Coat of Many Colors,” released the same year, reached No. 4. Then in 1973, she released “Jolene,” which was a country No. 1 and also charted on Billboard‘s Hot 100.
Parton stopped appearing on the TV show in 1974, and she wrote “I Will Always Love You” as a goodbye to her creative partner, Wagoner. “When I got ready to go, it was not a good scene. So I went home and that song just came to me. The next morning I said, ‘This is how I feel.’ Tears were rolling down his face,” she told PEOPLE in 2012.
The song topped the country chart twice, but it became a megahit when Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard. She told PEOPLE in 2015 about the first time she heard Houston’s version of the song on the radio. “It was a worldwide thing. It was in a movie; it was No. 1. I thought, ‘Wow. I wrote that little song,’ “ she said. “That’s when I felt my worth as a songwriter. I thought, ‘This is my gift, and I’m going to do the best I can with it.’ ”
Miss Piggy and Dolly Parton in 1988.
Parton continued to enjoy success with hits like “Light of a Clear Blue Morning,” “Here You Come Again,” “Two Doors Down,” “It’s All Wrong, But It’s All Right” and “You’re the Only One.”
By the end of the ’70s, Parton’s ambitions reached beyond Nashville; some worried she was leaving country music behind. She said in 1977, “I want people to know there is a lot more to me — good or bad — than they’ve seen so far. All I’m askin’ is a chance to prove it. . . . . I’m not leavin’ Nashville. Roots are important to me, and my roots are here.”
Parton’s movie career began in 1980 when she starred in 9 to 5 with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. Her theme song for the movie became her first No. 1 single on the Hot 100. The costars became lifelong friends, and Parton later made a guest appearance on their Netflix TV series Grace and Frankie.
Dolly Parton at Dollywood in 1988.
In 1982, she played a madam in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas alongside Burt Reynolds. “I make a better whore than a secretary,” she told PEOPLE in 1982. Parton also starred in 1984’s Rhinestone with Sylvester Stallone, 1989’s Steel Magnolias and 2012’s Joyful Noise.
In 1987, Parton released the critically acclaimed album Trio with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. She told PEOPLE in 2003 that they “were like sisters,” explaining, “We didn’t always agree, but we had a great sound. Our first Trio album was one of the greatest pieces of music I’ve ever been involved in.”
During her career, Parton won an Emmy, 11 Grammy awards, 10 Country Music Association awards, seven Academy of Country Music awards, three American Music awards and earned two Academy Award nominations, as well as an honorary Oscar. She was one of only seven female artists to win the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award.
Dolly Parton receiving an honorary degree from Carson-Newman College in 1990.
The music icon was also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999. During the memorable ceremony, she performed her hit song “Coat of Many Colors.” Parton’s close friend and “Islands in the Stream” duet partner Kenny Rogers presided over her induction.
Parton’s vibrant life was adapted into a musical titled Dolly: A True Original Musical that premiered in Nashville in July 2025 with plans of transferring to Broadway in 2026.
“I wanted to see it done while I’m still around, to be able to oversee it and make sure that it’s done properly in a way that I would want to see it, rather than to wait till I’m gone and let somebody else decide how they think it should be done,” she said in a press conference announcing the show’s premiere.
Kenny Rogers (left) and Dolly Parton.
She also wrote the score for the Broadway adaptation of 9 to 5, for which she received a Tony nomination. In 2005 she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2006 she received Kennedy Center Honors. In November 2022, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Parton frequently collaborated with younger artists, including Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter. She was also the godmother of Miley Cyrus. For the singer who once said, “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life,” maintaining her personal life was very important.
“I’ve told her some things that I think are valuable and that she uses, but I’d rather live [as] an example,” Parton told PEOPLE of her relationship with Cyrus. “[I’d rather] be an example rather than just try to tell somebody to do this, do that because I don’t think that’s right. Everybody’s different.”
She owned the Dollywood amusement park located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. She was also heavily involved in philanthropy, most notably her Imagination Library, which mails one book a month to children from birth until kindergarten. She was inspired in part by her father, who never learned to read or write.
Dolly Parton (left) and her goddaughter, Miley Cyrus.
Parton married Carl Thomas Dean in May 1966. Dean opted to stay out of the spotlight but encouraged his wife. “He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it,” Parton told PEOPLE. “He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes, but he’s at home. I don’t think they’re probably showing much of this on TV, and if they do, he might see it.”
“I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love,” Parton told PEOPLE in 2018. “I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”
Dean died on March 3, 2025. Parton announced his death on Instagram writing, “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”
Days after his death, Parton paid tribute to her late husband with a song titled “If You Hadn’t Been There.”
Dolly Parton in November 2023.
“Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,” she wrote on Instagram announcing the song alongside a rare throwback photo of the couple.
Parton reflected on their love story and her grief in a November 2025 PEOPLE cover story.
“Ours is a great old love story. Most people don’t stay that close that long,” Parton said of Dean at the time. “That’s a loss. Nobody can ever know that unless you’ve experienced it yourself. He will always be in my heart and in my memories.”
Parton was set to return to Las Vegas in December 2025 for a residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace — her first extended run in the city in more than 30 years — but in September of that year, she announced that the dates had been postponed due to “health challenges.”
“As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with some health challenges, and my doctors tell me that I must have a few procedures. As I joked with them, it must be time for my 100,000 check-up, although it’s not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!,” she said in a statement shared to Instagram. “In all seriousness, given this, I am not going to be able to rehearse and put together the show that I want you to see, and the show that you deserve to see. You pay good money to see me perform, and I want to be at my best for you.”
Dolly Parton in March 2025 in Nashville.
Despite the setback, Parton reassured her fans at the time writing, “And don’t worry about me quittin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet. But, I believe He is telling me to slow down right now so I can be ready for more big adventures with all of you.”
She later canceled the residency in May 2026, saying in an Instagram video that she was “responding really well to meds and treatments” and “improving every day.”
Years prior, Parton told PEOPLE that even after decades in the industry there were still dreams she had left to fulfill.
“I just hope I live long enough to do more things,” she said. “That’s the only thing that worries me, that I may run out of time before I see so many of my dreams come true. I wake up with new dreams all the time. But I put them in a place where they can continue, even after I’m gone.”
In a November 2025 cover story, Parton opened up to PEOPLE about her then-upcoming 80th birthday.
Dolly Parton in 1978; Dolly Parton in 2022
“People say, ‘Well, you’re going to be 80 years old.’ Well, so what? Look at all I’ve done in 80 years. I feel like I’m just getting started,” she says. “I know that sounds stupid, but unless my health gives way, which right now I seem to be doing fine . . . I think there’s a lot to be said about age. If you allow yourself to get old, you will. I say, ‘I ain’t got time to get old!’ I ain’t got time to dwell on that. That’s not what I’m thinking about.”
She also reflected on her impact and intentions in the industry. “I’m at that point in my life where I just want to be able to do good things that can be carried on. I’m proud of my legacy so far, and I hope to just continue to do things that might be of use to other people,” Parton told PEOPLE at the time.
“You know, I have just been going so fast my whole life,” Parton added in the same interview. “And I just start thinking, ‘How in the world did I even have a life? How did I even get it done?’ I really realized when I was putting this book together just how much I had sacrificed in my life. I never had children, so at least I didn’t have a guilty feeling. I’m thankful that I got to see my dreams come true.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/dolly-parton-country-music-legend-dies-at-80-just-4-days-after-saying-i-still-have-so-many-things-i-want-to-achieve/ar-AA2aUnil?ocid=socialshare&fbclid=IwY2xjawT68lBwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR7h-EPcn5viEJULOEm7XtOCw5V1Iim6Nq_22k6uxO0eKiSmO6ZRtb6oxzEycA_aem_cMn7YfXeAt_fsl8KfZPK2g }}
Playlist of Dolly Parton songs:
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyrwHUSc5hkwBquJ8dGVSrYXq8hxhGf0J)
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