‘Queen of Country’ Dolly Parton dies at 80 after a short battle with cancer

American singer Dolly Parton, known as the “queen of country”, died on August 25 in Nashville at the age of 80. The cause of death was cancer: her team confirmed a “short battle with cancer” without specifying the type of illness. Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced her death in a video message that, he said, the singer had asked him to record in advance.

Parton spent her final days at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, where she was admitted on August 21. Earlier in the month, she had spoken publicly about health problems, complaining of dehydration and dizziness.

Parton’s career spanned six decades. After releasing her debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967, she put out nearly 50 studio albums and sold more than 100 million records, receiving ten Grammy Awards from 55 nominations. Guinness World Records recognised her for the longest period with No. 1 hits on the country charts among female artists — 43 years, from 1977 to 2020.

The ballad I Will Always Love You, which she wrote in 1974, was covered 18 years later by Whitney Houston for the film The Bodyguard, and many listeners still consider Houston to be its author. Parton herself took it in stride, joking that she was happy to give up the fame while keeping the royalties.

In addition to music, Parton appeared in films: she received an Oscar nomination for the song from the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, and in 1989 starred in Steel Magnolias. In the mid-1980s, she invested in a theme park in Tennessee that was renamed Dollywood, and in 1988 founded a support foundation for education under the same name.

Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in rural Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children. Her husband, Carl Dean, with whom the singer had been married for 60 years, died in March 2025; the couple had no children.