Dolly Parton, queen of country music and humanitarian hero, dead at 80

By Dan Heching, Tiffany Baker, Marco Chacon and Brook Joyner, CNN Dolly Parton, who rose from humble beginnings to the greatest heights of American music and became one of the country’s most philanthropic, unifying and beloved stars, died Tuesday in Nashville, according to a family statement. She was 80. The statement said Parton died “peacefully.” A small, private service will be held for her close family, the statement added. Parton died “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer,” her publicist Marcel Pariseau later said. The star had been open about various health issues in the last two years, and especially after her husband Carl Dean died in March 2025. “Back when my husband Carl was very sick — that was for a long time — and then when he passed, I didn’t take care of myself,” Parton said in a video to fans earlier this year. “So I let a lot of things go that I should have been taking care of.” In a career that spanned over half a century, Parton captured the American experience, penning more than 3,000 songs. Those included “Coat of Many Colors,” a quiet ode to her mother, who stitched together garments in the family’s rural Tennessee home. She wrote and performed song