Dolly Parton, Beloved TN Icon, Dies at 80
Dolly Parton, the East Tennessee farmer’s daughter who became one of the most beloved figures in American music, has died at 80, her family announced Tuesday.
Parton died peacefully in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer. Her nephew Bryan Seaver delivered the news of her death with a video message she had asked him to record years earlier.
Born in 1946 in a one-room Locust Ridge cabin and raised in a large, poor family in the Smoky Mountains, Parton rose from The Cas Walker Show to global stardom. She founded Dollywood and gave millions of books to children through her Imagination Library.
Over her six-decade career, Dolly won 11 Grammys and an Emmy, received an honorary Oscar and the National Medal of the Arts, was a Kennedy Center Honoree, and was inducted into both the Country Music and Rock and Roll halls of fame.
Gov. Bill Lee said that Tennessee has been forever “enhanced” by Parton and “will never be quite the same without Dolly.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn stated, “Dolly, we will always love you.”
Here’s one of our favorites from Dolly. Enjoy!
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