Dolly Parton, the country singer and songwriter who carried the hymns of a small Tennessee mountain church into a career that ended with No. 1 hits on Christian radio, died Tuesday (Aug. 25) in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80.
Her family announced the death in a video posted to Parton's official channels, saying she died peacefully. The announcement described a "rhinestone life" and a legacy of "love, compassion, and resilience" built over a seven-decade career.
Parton was known internationally for "Jolene," "9 to 5" and the Dollywood theme park in the Smoky Mountains. Alongside that work she recorded steadily with contemporary Christian artists in her final years, including the Grammy-winning duet "There Was Jesus" with Zach Williams and a version of "God Only Knows" with the Australian duo for KING & COUNTRY.
The family's announcement was delivered by Parton's nephew Bryan Seaver, who served as her head of security for more than two decades and said she had asked him years earlier to record it.
"Our sadness lies with us, not with Dolly," Seaver said. "Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens."
Parton was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in 2025, and by her parents, Robert Lee Parton Sr. and Avie Lee Owens Parton.
Church beginnings
Parton was born Jan. 19, 1946, one of 12 children in a farming family in East Tennessee. Her maternal grandfather, Jake Owens, was a preacher, and Parton has said she began singing in church at age 6 and playing guitar not long after.
In an interview with Country Woman magazine reported by The Christian Post, Parton connected her early religious upbringing to the ambition that followed. "We grew up believing that through God all things are possible," she said. "I think I believed that so much that I made it happen."
Speaking to the same publication about the pressures of a long career, Parton said her convictions had held her steady. "It's all kept me sane. It's kept me stable," she said. "A belief in God is essential." She added that her family kept her grounded, saying she knew both what it was like to be without and what it was like to have things.
Faith surfaced throughout her catalog rather than only at its edges. Her first gospel record, "The Golden Streets of Glory," was released in 1971, followed decades later by "For God and Country" in 2003 and, in 2024, the sprawling family project "Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables," recorded with relatives.
Work with Christian artists
Parton's collaborations with contemporary Christian musicians began in 2019, when for KING & COUNTRY invited her to record a new version of "God Only Knows." Joel Smallbone, one half of the duo, has said the group approached her after seeing her Netflix film "Dumplin'."
"When I first heard 'God Only Knows' I thought it was one of the best songs I'd ever heard," Parton said in remarks published on her website. Smallbone described hearing her sing the chorus as "an out of body experience for us as writers and artists." The recording spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Christian Songs chart and won song of the year at the K-LOVE Fan Awards.
Her duet with Williams on "There Was Jesus" reached No. 1 across Christian radio charts and won the Grammy for best contemporary Christian music performance/song in 2021 — Parton's 11th Grammy. Accepting the award, she said: "Thank you Jesus, thank you Zach Williams, and thank you to the Grammys and all of our fans."
Parton said she took the song partly because she wanted material of that kind at that point in her life, calling it "a Godsend." The two recorded together again on "Lookin' For You," released in 2024 on the extended edition of Williams' album "A Hundred Highways."
Final years
Parton's last two years were shaped by grief and illness. Dean died in March 2025 after nearly six decades of marriage. In a June 2025 television interview, Parton said her faith had carried her through the loss.
"My faith has helped me through it all because I am a person of faith, even though I lost him on this earthly plane," she said, adding that she found comfort "knowing that he's in God's arms now."
She postponed a planned Las Vegas residency in September 2025, citing health challenges, and told fans in a social media post the following month, "I ain't dead yet!" Speaking at Dollywood in March 2026, she said she had been "worn down and worn out, grieving over Carl," and had needed to rebuild herself "spiritually, emotionally and physically."
The Christian Post has previously reported Parton's insistence that her success could not be separated from her religious convictions.
In lieu of flowers, her family asked that donations be made to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the childhood literacy program she founded in 1995 in memory of her father, which mails free books to children in several countries.
