The association said Wednesday that the television tribute — titled “CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton” — will be recorded live at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville.
The tribute will air Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. Pacific on ABC and Disney+, and will stream on Hulu a day later.
In a news release, CMA described the special as a “joyful, emotional celebration” dedicated to Parton, the rhinestone-studded singer whose life began humbly, in a one-room cabin at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Robert Deaton, veteran executive producer of the Country Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, will fill that role on the Parton project.
“Dolly gave Country Music its heart, and giving some of that heart back to her is an incredible honor,” said Deaton in a news release Wednesday. “My hope is simply that we do right by her story, her music and the people who love her, so that this evening feels like the tribute my friend deserves.”
Sarah Trahern, CMA chief executive, added that the tribute is the association’s “responsibility”: “This special is our way of saying thank you, on behalf of every artist, industry member and fan who found a piece of themselves in her music.”
The tribute is in partnership with Belmont University, which hosted the 2025 world premiere of “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” a biographical production about the “9 to 5” singer that is scheduled for its Broadway debut on Jan. 19, what would have been the Parton’s 81st birthday.
The university also previously launched “Dolly U,” an immersive educational partnership designed to connect students with hands-on opportunities in entertainment, media and creative industries.
Greg Jones, president of Belmont University, welcomed the special with a statement of his own: “It is a privilege to welcome artists, friends and fans from around the world to celebrate her extraordinary life and legacy from this stage in Nashville, honoring a woman whose love for Tennessee was woven into everything she did.”
Both the CMA and Belmont University will make a donation from the proceeds to Parton’s Imagination Library, which was launched by the Dollywood Foundation in 1995 to address childhood literacy by giving millions of children the gift of a free book each month. Disney will also support the program.
News of the television tribute follows an announcement last month by Parton’s estate that revealed plans for Dollyfest, a two-day celebration in Nashville and London next year across two consecutive weekends to honor her legacy.
Additional details for the CMA special, including performers and tickets, will be announced at a later date.
A GIANT glittery guitar hangs next to bright pink awnings and a huge sign that reads: “Dolly Parton’s SongTeller Hotel”.
The 12-storey building was one of the music icon’s final projects — and while she won’t get to see it open following her death at the age of 80 last month, it will ensure her legacy lives on in Nashville.
Music legend Dolly Parton died aged 80 in AugustCredit: Camera PressThe SongTeller Hotel opens this monthCredit: AP
Parton was heavily involved in the creation of the 240-room hotel, which is a glittering addition to the Tennessee skyline and an absolute must-visit for fans.
It opens to the public on September 29, and I was one of the lucky few granted a first look.
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A number of Parton’s costumes will be exhibited in the lobby in a nod to Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum on the third floor, where interconnected digital screens tell a 15-minute story of her life.
General manager Shannon Foster says: “We are expecting people to walk in even when they’re not staying here. We want everyone to feel welcome.”
Hotel guests will encounter more moments of magical discovery as they move through the elegant building, where song lyrics are etched on to doorframes.
Guests can choose from four room categories — even the most basic of which has the wow factor. But those with cash to splash can spoil themselves with a night in the Acoustic Suite, which is completely geared up for songwriters.
Its living area comes with a keyboard, while drawer liners adorned with Parton’s famous quotes add a personal touch.
The most heartwarming element of the hotel, however, are the Six Sisters rooms on every floor.
The must-visit Country Music Hall of FameCredit: GettyNashville is music cityCredit: Jeremy Poland
“When the designers asked Dolly what she wanted most in the hotel, she replied that she’d always wanted to share a room with her five sisters,” Foster explained.
The result is a touching tribute to the Parton family bond — a suite with three double beds separated by candy-stripe curtains and a washroom with two showers and toilets.
The rooms are connected by a living area in the middle with a curved sofa, a side table painted with each sister’s favourite flower and a chandelier decorated with the siblings’ birthstones.
Foster considers the second floor to be the heart of the operation, though, with guests taking a lift up to a gold sparkling desk to check in.
Parton’s Live — cosy seating around a stage, and bar space created to showcase upcoming talent — sits opposite.
But the jewel in the hotel’s crown looks likely to be the late-night lounge Jolene’s, on the top floor.
It will open daily from 5pm and serve punchy cocktails, and a food menu to suit.
A spectacular view over Second Avenue and the Cumberland River — where the famous 4th of July fireworks take place — means Jolene’s will, arguably, have the best seat in the house for the celebration.
The opulent bathroomCredit: SuppliedThe Six Sisters roomCredit: Supplied
The hotel may be opening a month after the singer’s tragic death but her touch is everywhere.
It’s in the diamante trim on bottle-green barstools, in the corset lacing on the back of a pink velvet chair and in the words etched into the corner of a mirror.
“Dolly approved every single rendering that became a reality,” Foster said.
“The hotel is Dolly’s gift to Nashville.”
Parton’s influence on her spiritual home is undeniable and if you plan to visit, it’s well worth exploring beyond the hotel.
Her star in the Music City Walk of Fame Park, near the hotel, remains encircled with floral tributes.
Dolly Parton — Journey of a Seeker is due to end in October but the singer is honoured throughout for her music and activism.
A number of Parton’s costumes will be exhibited in the lobbyCredit: SuppliedA Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum is on the third floor, where interconnected digital screens tell a 15-minute story of her lifeCredit: Supplied
Parton, whose Imagination Library has gifted over three million books to children worldwide — unwittingly entwined her identity into Nashville when she debuted at the Ryman auditorium at the age of 13.
She would not have known she would return to that very stage bigger and brighter each time.
And she definitely would not have dreamed that some day, she would own a hotel just three minutes away from the auditorium.
This is Dolly’s parting gift to Nashville. And it’s worth working 9 to 5 to bag yourself a room.
GO: NASHVILLE
GETTING THERE: British Airways flies from London Heathrow to Nashville from £677pp return, including 23kg luggage.
Folk singer Ray LaMontange was treated for heat-related dehydration after collapsing onstage during a weekend performance amid triple-digit heat in Nashville.
On Saturday, the 53-year-old toppled to the side while performing his popular track “Jolene” in front of a sold-out,crowd at Ryman Auditorium, according to recorded fan footage.
There were reports that LaMontagne had lost his place earlier in his set when performing “Hannah,” per Consequence. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures in the Nashville area reached a high of 101 degrees.
Later that night, LaMontagne’s management released a statement through his Instagram stories, sharing that the Grammy winner was in “good hands with local EMS” and that he was being treated for “heat-related dehydration.”
LaMontagne returned to the stage the following night, performing at the Louisville Palace in Kentucky, where he made no mention of the incident.
Last month, the Americana singer — best known for tracks “You Are the Best Thing” and “Hold You in My Arms” — had kicked off his 20th anniversary tour.
The tour is named after his 2004 debut album, “Trouble,” which is platinum certified in both the United States and United Kingdom; though the album reached only No. 164 on the Billboard 200 chart, it hit No. 5 on the U.K. Albums chart.
Known for his gruff vocals, LaMontagne first came to the scene in the early aughts as a timid troubadour. The New Hampshire-born, Utah-raised artist was once a former shoe factory worker from Maine whose singer-songwriter journey began when he woke up one morning to Stephen Stills’ “Treetop Flyer” on his clock radio.
All nine of LaMontagne’s albums — with the exception of his independently released 2024 LP, “Long Way Home” — have charted in the Billboard 200.
LaMontagne will continue on with his Trouble tour — which features special guest the Weather Station — through Oct. 3, closing out at New York City’s Beacon Theatre.
Dust off those cowboy boots and grab your glitter as fans across the globe wave goodbye to country music sensation Dolly PartonCredit: PA:Press AssociationDolly passed away last week but her legend lives on in the USCredit: Getty
On the third floor of the hotel, Dolly’s Life Of Many Colors Museum opens on September 29, with exhibits that explore her writing career and bold fashion choices.
Swing by Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop in Cornersville, south of Nashville.
The roadside venue has classic Tennessee barbecue, trucker facilities and a live music venue.
GO: Bon Voyage has a five-night stay at SongTeller Hotel from £1,995pp with flights on September 14. See bon-voyage.co.uk or call 0800 316 0194.
TENNESSEE CHILDHOOD
A must is her theme park Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, which has a replica of her childhood homeCredit: Alamy
THIS ticks off two of Dolly’s biggest loves – the great open road and Tennessee.
Start in Nashville, where she made a name for herself as a high school grad, before heading to Jackson and Memphis.
After a stop in Chattanooga, there’s the Great Smoky Mountains and Dolly’s hometown of Sevierville, which has the Pines Theatre where she performed aged ten.
A must is her theme park Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, which has a replica of her childhood home.
GO: A 14-night Tennessee Music Pathway trip costs from £1,995pp including flights and car hire. See americaasyoulikeit.com.
TEXAS MOVIE AND RODEO TRAIL
Dolly was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes for her performance as Mona Stangley in The Best Little Whorehouse In TexasCredit: Cover Images
TENNESSEE may be the legend’s home state, but Texas is where Parton made her big early film hit.
Dolly was nominated for Best Actress at the Golden Globes for her performance as Mona Stangley in The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas, above – shot in various locations throughout the Lone Star state.
Start in Austin, where the film premiered, then head to Hallettsville, a quaint Texan town that was used as a backdrop, and end in La Grange, which inspired the movie’s story.
She also performed some of her biggest gigs here, including the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – a must-visit while you’re in town.
GO: A five-night holiday with BA flights to Austin, returning from Dallas plus car hire; three nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Austin and two nights at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown Dallas is from £1,875pp. See americaasyoulikeit.com.
COUNTRY MUSIC AND MEMPHIS
Stay at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort & Spa, a proper country-themed hotel
THOSE keen to delve into the full musical story of America’s South should set their sights on this bucket-list Tennessee tour.
Alongside the must-visit Dolly destinations of Nashville and Pigeon Forge, you will explore Memphis, home to Elvis’s Graceland and Sun Studio, which has welcomed some of the most famous faces in American musical history.
Chattanooga and the equally legendary recording studio, Muscle Shoals, is also on the list, as is a stay at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort & Spa, a proper country-themed hotel with roaring fireplaces and guitars hanging from the wall.
GO: The 14-night trip costs from £3,409pp including flights in November, accommodation and intermediate car hire with insurance.
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.”
Aug. 29 (UPI) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Friday said he wants to rename Nashville International Airport in honor of Dolly Parton.
Lee said he wants to create a lasting tribute to the “indelible legacy” of the country music legend, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80.
“Dolly Parton’s extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state,” Lee said in a statement. “From her rural mountain home in East Tennessee to global stages, Dolly carried the Volunteer Spirit with her.
“At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state’s favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith, and kindness.”
Lee said Parton’s team was “touched by the idea.” The 11-time Grammy winner had lived in Nashville since the 60s.
The proposal will be discussed by the Metro Nashville Airport Authority at its next meeting on Sept. 17.
Parton died after “bravely facing a brief battle with cancer,” her publicist said. Her career spanned more than six decades.
Alongside her Grammy Awards, she earned three Emmy Awards, an honorary Academy Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Her many hits included “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” which was famously covered by Whitney Houston.
TENNESSEE’S governor Bill Lee announced on Friday that Nashville International Airport will be no more – as the state looks for a new name in tribute to late icon Dolly Parton.
Country music star Dolly Parton died at 80 on Tuesday, sparking waves of tributes across the countryCredit: GettyHer death also reignited calls to rename Nashville International Airport after herCredit: Alamy
The petition to rename the Nashville International Airport after Parton gained nearly 130,000 signatures.
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“We request that the airport’s name be changed to Dolly Parton International Airport to honor an icon who has given so much to our state and to the world,” the petition on Change.com read.
“Sign the petition to make this change a reality. We could all be Departin’ from Parton!!”
The petition had originally started in January 2025, but has gained 80,000 signatures since Parton died on Tuesday.
“Dolly deserves to be remembered and celebrated,” the updated petition reads.
“What a wonderful way to share her light and magic across Tennessee and the world.”
It called on Governor Bill Lee and state Representatives Todd Warner, Bob Freeman, and Fred Atchley, to make the change.
“Yes I will definitely introduce legislation to rename the BNA airport Dolly Parton International Airport!” he wrote.
Sheryl Crow also joined in on the calls to rename the airport.
During an Instagram Live with Katie Couric, she said, “Yes! I think we should,” and joked that she didn’t know what Nashville’s call sign BNA meant.
Governor Lee didn’t take long to act, announcing his intention to rename Nashville Airport on Friday afternoon.
“Dolly Parton’s extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state,” he said.
“From her rural mountain home in East Tennessee to global stages, Dolly carried the Volunteer Spirit with her.
“At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state’s favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith, and kindness.”
The exact new name of the airport remains unclear – as is the official date the change will happen.
A meeting is currently scheduled for September 17 to discuss.
The country music icon passed away in a Nashville hospital after a brief battle with cancer.
“BNA is the front door to Music City, and with that comes a responsibility to reflect the very best of who we are as a community,” said Doug Kreulen, president and CEO, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority.
“Dolly’s remarkable legacy reminds us that what makes Nashville special is our ability to welcome people from every walk of life.
“She understood that dignity, kindness and opportunity should never be defined by where you come from or your socioeconomic status.
“At BNA, we share that commitment. Whether you are boarding a private aircraft or taking your first flight, you deserve to be welcomed, respected and served with the same level of care. That spirit is what defines BNA and it is a fitting reflection of the values Dolly shared with Tennessee and the world.”
Dolly Parton, the singer and songwriter from Locust Ridge, Tenn., who willed herself into being the very symbol of country music stardom, has died in Nashville.
Parton died peacefully Tuesday, her nephew Bryan Seaver announced in a press release shared with The Times. Seaver also announced her death in a video shared to the singer’s Instagram page. She was 80.
The fabled entertainer died after a series of health issues that led her to postpone several performing commitments. In September 2025, she missed the announcement of a Dollywood attraction to recover from a kidney stone. Later that month she delayed her residency at Caesars Palace — her first residency on the Las Vegas Strip in more than 30 years — due to unspecified “health challenges.”
Over the course of a flamboyant 50-plus-year career as a songwriter, recording artist, actor and businesswoman, Parton reinvented the American success story through a combination of grit and wit, faith and sex appeal, virtuosity and plainspokenness, empathy for the human condition and plastic surgery.
She seized on the roles that American culture allowed for women in the spotlight — waif, trollop, fallen woman, country girl in over her head — and played them to the hilt, achieving artistic and financial heights few female performers have ever reached. By the time of her death, she was said to be one of the few things that Americans of most every persuasion could agree on.
One of the most honored musicians in modern history, Parton earned 10 Grammy Awards, two Academy Award nominations, a Primetime Emmy, 10 Country Music Assn. awards, and in 1999 she was enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
In 2005 President George W. Bush presented Parton with the National Medal of the Arts, and a year later she was given a Kennedy Center for the Arts Award for her lifetime contribution to the arts. Parton logged some 25 gold or platinum records and 25 No. 1 songs on the country chart. Parton also won a Liseberg Applause Award, the biggest prize in the theme park industry, for her fabled tourist attraction Dollywood.
Parton’s rags-to-riches tale reads like a classic country music story-song. But before it became mythical, it was only incredibly hard.
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tenn., in the Great Smoky Mountains, on Jan. 19, 1946. Her father was a tobacco sharecropper and she was the fourth of 12 children. In her autobiography, “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business,” Parton related how her parents were so poor they paid the doctor who delivered her with a sack of cornmeal.
Raised in a one-room cabin with no electricity, she listened to the Grand Ole Opry on a battery-powered radio. When she was 7 she started writing songs; a year later she picked up the guitar. At 10 she was singing on a Knoxville radio and TV program, “Cas Walker Farm & Home Hour.”
The Parton family was musical, and there were always banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars around the cabin. Her voice, a birdlike soprano with an animated trill, hadn’t changed much from her youth: “I sound like a little girl singing all these Lord-awful songs,” she told “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross in 2001.
On a Friday night in 1964, Parton became the first in her family to graduate from high school. The next afternoon she was on a bus heading for Nashville, targeting a career in country music.
Bob Hope gets an adjustment to his reindeer costume as he and Dolly Parton prepare to tape a 1988 Christmas special on a cruise ship docked in Miami.
(Kathy Willens / Associated Press)
Women had little real power in Nashville at the time, and though rural women were a growing part of the country music audience, they were marginalized as artists. Parton signed to the Monument label, but felt that they wanted a pop singer more than they wanted her. An early breakthrough came when singer Bill Phillips heard a demo version of her “Put It Off Until Tomorrow”; not only did he want to record the song, but he recorded it with Parton singing harmony on it. The song went to No. 6 on the country chart in 1966.
In 1967 she recorded Curly Putman’s “Dumb Blonde,” her first charting song as a singer and a savvy choice that spoke to her as both an image and as flesh and blood, as she sang:
Just because I’m blond Don’t think I’m dumb ‘Cause this dumb blond ain’t nobody’s fool
Nashville noticed. That year, country music star Porter Wagoner was looking for a new “girl singer” for his popular TV show, after Norma Jean left. Parton got the gig, and for weeks, legend has it, was greeted by the studio audience shouting “Norma Jean” when Parton opened her mouth. It was the kind of challenge she lived for. Carefully deferential to the star, Parton carved out a foothold for herself.
They were a complicated team. Tall, gaunt and calculating, Wagoner’s angles had angles, but somehow standing next to her, his pompadour dwarfing her considerable bouffant, it worked. At their peak, they had a weekly TV viewership of over 3.5 million, and recorded numerous hit duets, “Holding on to Nothin” (1968), “If Teardrops Were Pennies” (1973) and “Please Don’t Stop Loving Me” (1974) among them.
On her solo recordings at the time, Parton included a raft of songs about poor children in trouble. These gothic, occasionally autobiographical compositions, including “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy,” “Evening Shade,” “Daddy Come and Get Me” and “Down From Dover,” would have been more than enough to make her, if not a star, at least a country music legend. But the kind of attention even her lesser work with Wagoner enjoyed continued to elude her own material.
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers laugh together backstage at an April 2010 show honoring her “Islands in the Stream” singing partner.
(Rick Diamond / Getty Images)
By 1973, Parton realized that if she was going to be her own star she would have to be on her own. Wagoner fought and threatened, and finally, Parton wrote a song as a way to help him understand both her gratitude and her need for independence, “I Will Always Love You.” He liked the song, but it didn’t convince him. Wagoner sued her for $20 million over breach of contract and settled for $1 million.
But Parton had won her freedom, and she made the most of it. Her album from that year, “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” was a reintroduction to her audience, an autobiographical cycle of songs telling the story of a singer leaving home to make it on Music Row. And in 1974, “Jolene” became her chart-topping breakthrough.
The title was the name of a red-haired, green-eyed young fan Parton met signing autographs, and the story of a woman begging a rival to leave her man alone. Parton said she made it up after discovering a bank teller had a crush on her husband. With a beveled chord progression and a haunting repetition of the name, it became perhaps her most requested song, and was covered by many, including the White Stripes, Candi Staton, Reba McEntire and Olivia Newton-John.
“I wanted to be seen, I wanted to be recognized, I wanted to be a star,” she explained. The last part was now coming into focus.
In 1976 she hosted a short-lived variety TV series, “Dolly!” Her name was her brand, and so, too, was her profile: the full bosom and tiny waist, platinum wig and baubles like sprinkles on an ice cream cone, 5 feet tall standing in five-inch heels. She was a disarming contradiction: manufactured and utterly sincere.
“A country girl’s idea of what glamour was,” she explained.
“I didn’t have any money to have stuff and I’ve often joked about it, but it’s the real truth that I patterned myself after what they considered the trash in our hometown.” She took shame and made it a flag, one big enough for all sorts of Americans to settle beneath.
Dolly Parton checks out an exhibit honoring her life and career at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in May 2025.
(Jason Kempin / Getty Images)
Building on her fame, in the mid-’70s Parton decided to reinvent herself by reaching beyond the confines of country music. She signed with L.A.-based talent manager Sandy Gallin, who had made Mac Davis a country crossover star and would soon work with Cher and Michael Jackson.
Parton laid off her longtime Traveling Family Band and sought out musicians and songs that were more purely pop. Hits that followed included “Here You Come Again” (No. 20 on the pop chart, 1977), “Heartbreaker” (No. 37, 1978) and duets with Kenny Rogers like “Islands in the Stream” (No. 1, 1983).
The pop move was muttered over and seen by gatekeepers as a rejection of Southern-based authenticity. It was the era of “Urban Cowboy” and purity was being policed. “I love country music. It’s my first love,” she told the SoHo News. “But it was confining. You can only go so far in a circle.”
The movie “9 to 5” from 1980 settled her broadening stardom; acting alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in a comedy about three office workers who get even with an abusive boss, Parton charmed viewers. It was her first acting role, and Roger Ebert called her “a natural born movie star.” She wrote and sang the movie’s theme song, which topped Billboard’s pop and country charts.
Dolly Parton and her “9 to 5” castmates Jane Fonda, left, and Lily Tomlin assemble at a 1980 news conference to promote the movie.
(Wally Fong / Associated Press)
Parton would go on to act in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” (1982), “Rhinestone” (1984), “Steel Magnolias” (1989), the “Hannah Montana” TV series (she was Miley Cyrus’ godmother in real life too), and in many more films and TV shows. But her biggest cinematic moment came with a song she’d written years before; “I Will Always Love You” was sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” turning her air kiss to Porter Wagoner into a No. 1 hit for 14 weeks.
In the mid-1980s, Parton suffered a number of setbacks. She experienced depression. “I was just broken down,” she said later. In 1982, abdominal pain and bleeding forced her to cancel a tour, and in 1984 she had a partial hysterectomy. There were bouts of binge eating, and when she hit bottom she considered suicide. A series of conversations with God were instrumental in her recovery, Parton said.
Underscoring her connection to her origins while also illustrating how far she had gone, in 1986 she bought an old amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and reinvented it as Dollywood, a booming theme park, resort and theater. Other businesses included Sandollar Productions, a film and TV company. In the 1990s Parton formed her own label, Blue Eye Records.
Success meant she could settle into being Dolly. A trio of beloved bluegrass albums, “The Grass Is Blue,” “Little Sparrow” and “Halos & Horns,” around the turn of the millennium reestablished her as a performer with extensive roots in rural America. She recorded with everyone from Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Her 2019 cover of John Hiatt’s “Faith,” made with Swedish duo Galantis, topped the EDM charts.
She embraced her Christian and LGBTQ+ fans, and perhaps no American artist had more of each. Inclusivity mattered to Parton. She was an icon to the LGBTQ+ community. In 2002 at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, Parton replaced the name Jolene with “drag queen” and sang her famous song as a roster of drag performers looked on.
Dolly Parton at the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2022.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
Just two years later, in 2004, the Library of Congress presented Parton with the since-retired “Living Legend Medal,” which sought to recognize those that made significant creative contributions to American life.
Singer and songwriter Brandi Carlile called Parton “an angel on my shoulder and also the devil on my other shoulder.”
“When I was 15 years old I read the back of Dolly Parton’s book when she became the first country artist ever to speak out in support of LGBTQ people. And I can tell you that as a queer kid from a small town, getting love from Dolly is second only to God.”
Parton has been honored in musical tributes by Carrie Underwood, Alison Krauss and Shania Twain. “Jolene” became the subject of the short story “Jolene: A Life,” by E.L. Doctorow. In 2019 WNYC and Jad Abumrad presented “Dolly Parton’s America,” a nine-segment podcast devoted to, and with the cooperation of, Parton; it examined her persona and impact on American life.
That same year Netflix presented “Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings,” an anthology series in which each episode presents a fictional narrative built around a Parton song; the series features appearances by Kathleen Turner, Delta Burke and Melissa Leo.
Dolly Parton and President Carter embrace as First Lady Rosalynn Carter looks on before a White House luncheon in October 1979.
(Georges / Associated Press)
Her influence was so vast she has even been proposed as a field of academic study, and scrutinized in the 2018 academic study from Leigh H. Edwards, “Dolly Parton, Gender, and Country Music.”
She was married to the same man, Carl Thomas Dean, for over 50 years. They met on the day she arrived in Nashville in 1964, as she stood outside a laundromat. Parton and Dean were rarely seen in public together, and renewed vows in 2016. Dean died at age 82 in March 2025.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Parton said in a statement at the time. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
Parton remained a source of interest and fascination, and though few if anyone could really claim to know her, many thought they did. As she once put it: “I look one way and am another. It makes for a good combination.”
Hayden Panettiere spent much of her life in front of a camera, beginning her acting career before she was even a year old, starring in commercials. At the tender age of 4, she landed her big break with a recurring role on the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live,” which led to a role on another soap opera, CBS’ “Guiding Light.” Over the years, she performed in a number of films and TV series, landing notable roles that made her a staple of network television. In addition to her onscreen work, she did voice acting for animated films like “A Bug’s Life” and “Dinosaur,” as well as the video game franchises “Kingdom Hearts” and “Until Dawn.”
The actor, who died Sunday at 36, was a versatile performer whose no-nonsense attitude and vocal range added depth to roles. Here is a guide to some of her notable work.
‘Remember the Titans’
Disney’s 2000 sports drama was based on the real story of Herman Boone, a Black football coach who was installed as head coach at the desegregated T.C. Williams High School in Arlington, Va., and led the team to a perfect season and state championship. In the film, Panettiere plays Sheryl Yoast, the young daughter of coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), whose job Boone is given by the school district to placate Black community members as racial tensions rise. Panettiere’s Sheryl makes an impression right away, with a fiery speech directed at an official who comes to tell Yoast that Boone will now be head football coach of T.C. Williams. “You can’t just walk in here and take my daddy’s job away,” she cries as she stomps away, but not before kicking said official in the back of the leg. Later, she understands the implications of the decision, even if it comes at the cost of her father’s selection into the high school football hall of fame, preferring to put the team and their teamwork first: “Bunch of old rednecks … Let’s knock ‘em dead at state, coach.” (Watch on Hulu and Disney+.) — Maira Garcia
‘Ice Princess’
In Disney’s 2005 film, Panettiere was a little too good at playing the popular mean girl. She was even better at playing the popular mean girl who lets her icy walls melt away to welcome in the new girl. As talented figure skater Gennifer Harwood, Panettiere faithfully portrayed the evolution of friendships — especially for young women — in highly competitive sports and the tension between young athletes and their well-intended, but overbearing parents. While Panettiere could stand on her own talents, her performance was even more memorable for the dynamic she shared with screen partner Michelle Trachtenberg. The latter played Casey, a student with Ivy League ambitions whose interest in physics brings her to the figure skating world. Trachtenberg died in 2025 at 39. (Watch on Disney+.) — Alexandra Del Rosario
‘Heroes’
Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere) with her father Noah (Jack Coleman), also known as H.R.G., in NBC’s “Heroes.”
(Chris Haston / NBC)
This superhero series was a hit from the moment it debuted in 2006. An international cast fueled a show that featured people gifted with superpowers around the world that had a mysteriously ominous connection. At its heart was Panettiere’s Claire Bennet. An unbreakable high school cheerleader, she embraced the role of hero, facing pushback from a shadowy government group, serial killers and a twisted family dynamic. Panettiere became the face of NBC’s freshman ensemble success story, and despite an industry work stoppage and dwindling fan support afterward, the show’s viral campaign — “Save the cheerleader, save the world” — centered her, and her character’s courage, on a bona fide fandom-generating ride that ended way too soon in 2010, after four seasons. (Watch on Netflix and Tubi.) — Jevon Phillips
‘Scream’ franchise
Hayden Panettiere at the premiere of “Scream VI” in New York City in 2023.
(Nina Westervelt / Variety via Getty Images)
The actor joined the hit horror franchise in 2011’s “Scream 4” as Kirby Reed, a Woodsboro High student who is a horror film buff. One of that film’s memorable scenes featured Kirby in a tense trivia telephone showdown with the Ghostface killer, rushing through the titles of several slasher films while attempting to save one of her friends.
Although Kirby was seemingly killed off, she returned as an FBI agent in 2023‘s “Scream VI” when the franchise continued with younger characters and moved its setting to New York. “Scream” fans cheered during an early screening when Panettiere’s character appeared — she and Courtney Cox were one of the few “Scream” veterans to return for the new film.
Panettiere’s hair was longer and her role was expanded in the new “Scream.” Kirby explained that she had survived the Ghostface attack: “I was technically dead for four minutes. When I was revived, I got mad … I wanted the monsters to be afraid of me.”
Kirby also engaged in another trivia back-and-forth with Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) where they agreed on the best “Nightmare on Elm Street” (“the original”) and that “Psycho 2” was “underrated,” but disagreed on the best “Friday the 13th” sequel. Although she is investigating a new set of Ghostface killings, Kirby later becomes a prime suspect. (Watch all on Paramount+.) — Greg Braxton
‘Nashville’
In ABC’s “Nashville,” Juliette Barnes’ storyline was infused with personal struggles similar to Panettiere’s.
(Katherine Bomboy-Thornton / ABC)
Panettiere was noticeably more mature when she became a co-lead role in ABC’s “Nashville” as Juliette Barnes, a crossover singer with more than a few similarities to Taylor Swift. The music-flavored drama, which premiered in 2012, starred Connie Britton as country star Rayna Jaymes, whose career was on the downturn at the same time Barnes was climbing the charts.
The actor injects her “Nashville” character with a mix of sexiness, snark and edge as Barnes becomes rivals with Jaymes. When the two first meet in a dressing room during the pilot, Jaymes is gracious while Barnes is condescending.
Panettiere said in an interview that she was tense during that scene. particularly since it was the first time the two actors had met. She said she apologized to Britton repeatedly saying, “‘I am so sorry!’ Because it was our first experience together, and I didn’t want to step on toes. Sometimes it gets real, very real, you know?”
While filming the series, Panetierre gave birth to her daughter in 2014. She detailed her struggles with postpartum depression in interviews, saying the condition was “scary and needed to be talked about.” In the series, Barnes also suffered from postpartum depression during the show’s third and fourth seasons. (Watch on Pluto TV and Netflix.) — G.B.
‘Kingdom Hearts’
Square Enix’s beloved video game series was my personal introduction to Panettiere and her acting abilities. In the first two installments, Panettiere voiced the kind island kid turned princess Kairi for the games’ English dub. Before protagonist Sora’s (voiced by a young Haley Joel Osment) world descends into darkness, Panettiere’s Kairi is playful and tender early in “Kingdom Hearts 1.” In the slightly more complicated “Kingdom Hearts 2” Panettiere’s older Kairi is contemplative, defiant and desperate to help all her friends. Kairi’s scenes are often accompanied by the powerful score from composer Yoko Shimomura, amplifying the emotion that has driven the games’ fanbase for more than two decades.
“Don’t ever forget. Wherever you go, I’m always with you,” Panettiere’s Kairi says in a memorable cut scene. — A.D.R.
