An eleven-time Grammy Award winner, from her debut in 1967 to her 50 studio recordings, she has spanned nearly sixty years of songwriting, filmmaking and philanthropy.

Dolly Parton died on Tuesday, August 25, in Nashville. She was 80. Her nephew Bryan Seaver, Cassie Parton&#39;s son, announced the news in a video posted on the artist&#39;s social media channels. He said his aunt had entrusted him with the task long ago, when the possibility still seemed remote. According to spokesman Marcel Pariseau, the singer passed away peacefully after a brief illness.

The news comes just days after an interview with People in which Parton admitted, with her trademark frankness, that she was going through a difficult time with her health. Over the past year, she has chosen to speak openly about it with the public through a series of videos, never losing the affectionate and disarming tone that has made her a familiar figure for generations.

Born on January 19, 1946, in Sevier County, Tennessee, on the banks of the Little Pigeon River, Dolly Rebecca Parton was the fourth of twelve children. Her love of music came from her mother, while her poverty came from circumstances, and she never hid it, instead transforming it into narrative material. As a child, she sang on local radio and television stations, and at thirteen she performed at the Grand Ole Opry, where she met Johnny Cash.

She began her career as a lyricist for other artists before releasing her debut album, “Hello, I'm Dolly,” in 1967. Fifty studio albums followed, selling over one hundred million copies worldwide, and a handful of songs that have entered the collective memory: “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” and “I Will Always Love You,” a song that Whitney Houston would turn into a global phenomenon and which remains, in its original version, one of the most crystalline compositions in American songwriting. The title “Queen of Country,” which some soon attributed to her, she has never disputed or flaunted.

Alongside singing and writing, he had also worked in films – “9 to 5,” “Steel Magnolias” – and a business built around his biography: the Dollywood theme park, the Life of Many Colours Museum housed in Nashville’s Songteller Hotel, and, since last May, Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop.

(Getty Images)

But perhaps it&#39;s philanthropy that best captures the true measure of her character. With the Imagination Library, she delivered a book a month to millions of children, from birth to five years old. She supported the LGBTQ+ community without ever separating this commitment from her faith, and she funded medical research and aid to populations affected by natural disasters.

In his farewell message, spokesperson Seaver recalled what Dolly Parton meant to those who never knew her personally: a mother, an aunt, a step-grandmother. The family announced a private ceremony reserved for close relatives.

Dolly Parton, Queen of Country Music, Dies Aged 80

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