Country music legend Dolly Parton, whose career spanned music, TV, and film and included 11 Grammys and inductions into the Country Music and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, has died aged 80.
Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced the news on the singer’s social media handles on Tuesday, August 25, 2026.
“My name is Brin Seaver, son of Cassie Parton, and I’m representing the Parton and Owens families today announcing the passing of my aunt, Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean, sister, Sis, and Granny to one generation and Gigi to the next,” Seaver said in a video.
Parton had announced the cancellation of a series of concerts, citing ongoing health concerns in the past year.
In videos posted to her social media accounts, she said that while treatment for an unspecified illness was going well, she was not ready to be performing on stage.
Parton lived her entire adult life in the heart of Americana, folk, and country music. The day after graduating from high school, she struck out for the country music capital, Nashville.
She announced in May 2026 that she was canceling a Las Vegas show and said she’d been undergoing treatment for kidney stones for several years.
Born Dolly Rebecca Parton on Jan. 19, 1946, in Pittman Center, Tennessee, the country icon made her debut album, “Hello, I’m Dolly,” released in 1967, after achieving success as a songwriter for other artists.
Parton, the fourth of twelve children, received 52 Grammy nominations and 11 wins and was the second-most nominated woman in Grammy history, behind only Beyoncé, who has 79 nods and 24 wins.
Her death comes almost a year after that of her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in March 2025.
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