Overview
- Her family confirmed that Dolly Parton died on Tuesday, Aug. 25, after a brief battle with cancer and that her nephew Bryan Seaver delivered the announcement in a video.
- The family said Parton requested a small, private memorial for immediate family and asked that donations be directed to her Imagination Library in lieu of flowers.
- Parton’s March 2020 $1 million gift to Vanderbilt University Medical Center created the Dolly Parton COVID‑19 Research Fund, which researchers say helped seed early work later linked to an mRNA vaccine.
- Over a six‑decade career she wrote roughly 3,000 songs, sold more than 100 million records, won multiple Grammys and built businesses including Dollywood that shaped the economy of East Tennessee.
- Public tributes have poured in, with flags lowered, landmarks lit in pink and musicians and institutions honoring her life while her Imagination Library—now credited with hundreds of millions of books mailed—remains a central part of her legacy.