NASHVILLE — Dolly Parton, the Tennessee-born singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist, died Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 80.
Her family confirmed her death in a video posted to her social media, featuring her nephew, Bryan Seaver. In the video, Seaver shared that Parton died peacefully in Nashville. A cause of death was not immediately disclosed.
Parton’s seven-decade career included massive hits including “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “I Will Always Love You.” She sold more than 100 million records and earned 11 Grammy Awards, including lifetime achievement honors from the Country Music Association and Grammys.
Parton’s musical legacy may have fit in one genre, but her spirit was one that couldn’t be boxed in.
While she was not a civil rights leader or political activist, her legacy reached into Black America. The singer made several public and private choices that carried meaning in a country music industry that has often overlooked its Black roots.
Dolly Parton Spoke Plainly About Black Lives
Parton generally avoided partisan politics throughout her career. That made her comments during the 2020 racial reckoning especially notable.
“I understand people having to make themselves known and felt and seen,” she told Billboard. “And of course Black lives matter. Do we think our little white asses are the only ones that matter? No!”
Her comments came during nationwide protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Parton had already confronted another racial issue within her business empire. In 2018, she removed “Dixie” from the name of her Civil War-themed dinner attraction. The production became Dolly Parton’s Stampede.
She later said she made the change after learning that the word offended people.
“As soon as you realize that something is a problem, you should fix it,” Parton said.
Her Music Found New Life Through Black Women
Parton wrote and recorded “I Will Always Love You” in 1973. Nearly two decades later, Whitney Houston transformed the song into a global phenomenon for the 1992 film The Bodyguard.
Houston’s recording became one of the best-selling singles of all time. Parton repeatedly expressed admiration for Houston’s performance and gratitude for what the recording did for her song.
That connection took on new meaning after Houston’s death in 2012. Parton said hearing the recording could still affect her deeply because she associated it with Houston.
More than three decades later, Beyoncé reworked “Jolene” for her 2024 album Cowboy Carter. The project placed a Black woman at the center of a genre shaped in part by African American musical traditions, including the blues, banjo music and Black string bands.
Parton publicly celebrated Beyoncé’s interpretation, saying she felt honored that the singer had recorded the song.
A Donation That Helped Advance A COVID-19 Vaccine
Parton also donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020. The money supported coronavirus research connected to the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The contribution was not presented as racial-justice philanthropy. Still, the research carried particular importance for Black communities, which experienced disproportionate COVID-19 hospitalization and death during the pandemic.
Parton joked that she had received “a dose of her own medicine” when she was vaccinated with the Moderna shot in 2021.
Millions Of Books Delivered To Children
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 to provide free books to young children in her home county in East Tennessee. She said her father’s inability to read inspired the program.
It later expanded throughout the United States and into several other countries. The program now sends more than 3 million books each month to participating children from birth to age 5, regardless of family income.
Local partners determine where the program operates and help fund the books. That model has brought free reading material into rural, urban and economically disadvantaged communities, including Black communities across the South.
Parton never claimed to be a civil rights activist, but her choices and public efforts revealed something more specific: a white Southern woman from poverty who repeatedly showed a willingness to listen, reconsider and widen the circle around her.
As The Black Wall Street Times is rooted in the belief that access is the new civil right, that part of Dolly Parton’s legacy is worth naming.
