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Published On 7 Sep 20267 Sep 2026
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DOLLY Parton has been laid to rest in a private funeral attended by her family.
The country music great was buried next to husband Carl Dean on Friday at the Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville, Tennessee.
Their shared memorial bears both names, an image of two interlocking wedding rings, and the inscription “Married May 30, 1966”.
The send-off was “very simple” and what “Dolly would have wanted”, sources said.
The Sun last week revealed that the country music star wanted to have her dad’s favourite song If We Never Meet Again (This Side of Heaven) played at the service.
Dolly’s great-niece, Lainey Mae Parton, gave an emotional tribute confirming the burial had taken place.
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The superstar’s family have not yet released an official statement.
Lainey, 20, wrote on Saturday: “I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words.”
She said she knew the star as “Aunt Granny”, a name that captured the central role Dolly played within her enormous family.
Lainey explained that although Dolly and Carl never had children, she made the younger members of the family feel like they belonged to her.
She added: “She loved us that way and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”
Lainey also said Dolly — who died last Tuesday aged 80 after a brief battle with cancer — helped pay for her beauty school education and encouraged her musical ambitions.
Full funeral details have not been publicly released.
Dolly’s husband of nearly 59 years, Carl, 82, died last year.
An obituary posted by Woodlawn Memorial Park remembered “her timeless music and prolific songwriting, but also her wit, warmth, and kindness that made us all feel like family”.
Dolly Parton has been laid to rest in a private ceremony.
The immediate family of the country western star who died last week gathered at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville on Friday morning.
Parton was buried alongside her husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025. The bronze crypt plate mounted at the mausoleum had the star’s name engraved on it before she died, alongside her husband’s name and a depiction of her Tennessee home.
In a social media post, Amelia Young from Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 shared photos of Parton’s burial site and said that the cemetery had set out velvet ropes and guest books so fans could visit Parton and pay their respects.
“Dolly’s fans and friends from around the world are encouraged to pay tribute to Dolly on social media tagging @dollyparton,” according to the cemetery’s obituary. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum is Nashville’s largest cemetery, where many other country western stars have been interred including George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Eddy Arnold, Marty Robbins and Porter Wagoner — Parton’s former mentor, for whom she wrote “I Will Always Love You” as a professional farewell when she went solo in 1973.
Parton’s great-niece Lainey Parton shared a tribute following the funeral, writing on Instagram, “This is a really hard post for me to make. I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words.
“From the time I was little, my granny always had a way of making me feel like I was enough. She never made my dreams feel too big or made me feel like I couldn’t do something. She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself.
“Most people can think of at least one bad memory with everyone in their family. I honestly can’t think of one with her.
“Because she couldn’t have kids of her own, she always made us feel like we were hers. She loved us that way, and I’ll forever be grateful for that.
“One memory I’ll always hold onto is when she asked me to sing with her on her @smokymountaindna album. I was a freshman in high school and SO nervous. But she had a way of making me feel like nothing bad could happen. She made me feel safe, confident, and like I belonged right there beside her. …
“She didn’t just tell me to chase my dreams, she helped me get there.”
Parton died peacefully last week, her nephew Bryan Seaver announced in a news release shared with The Times. Seaver also announced her death in a video shared to the singer’s Instagram page. Parton was 80.
In a statement, a representative for the country music icon said: “After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones.”
The type of cancer was not specified.
