The world lost an icon, and the Parton family lost their beloved sister.
On August 25, 2026, Dolly Parton sadly passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Aside from that, she understandably didn’t share more, though clearly there were more serious issues going on. Dolly’s reps confirmed she sadly died following a “brief battle with cancer,” though the specific kind was not revealed.
While the world mourns, even more so does Dolly’s family, and her sister, Stella, previously took to Instagram last to share a lengthy post about her love for her big sister and Dolly’s final days. Stella explained that she and Dolly used to have coffee together and catch up very early on Tuesday mornings, because growing up farm girls, they continued to be early risers throughout their lives.
She has since issued a statement aimed at people trying to profit off of of her sister’s death with fake stories, and it’s on secret that Stella is one of the most outspoken Parton family members, though I can’t blame her for being upset about that.
And today, Stella sat down for her first formal interview since Dolly passed for CBS Mornings with Gayle King, where she opened up about why Dolly kept her cancer diagnosis a secret from the world, as well as a secret from some of her family members. The family also decided not to reveal which kind of cancer Dolly had “out of respect for her,” Stella revealed:
“Well, that was her her business. No, but she didn’t tell us that we could say it. So out of respect for her, I can talk about my love for her and describe who she is to me, but it’s not my business to tell her business.”
Of course, Gayle also asked Stella about their sister Frieda Parton’s post on Facebook last year when she asked fans to pray for Dolly’s recovery when she first got sick when the world thought it was just kidney stones.
It became international news, and fans were obviously concerned that there might be more going on, and Stella says she thinks Dolly “got onto” Frieda about that:
“I think Dolly got onto Freida about that. I don’t know, because I haven’t asked Freida because it was very touchy about all that. So I didn’t wanna hurt Freida’s feelings, and I didn’t wanna mention it to Dolly, but I’m pretty sure Dolly said, ‘Pipe it down.’
She knew Freida was just upset and hurt, but she thought, don’t be telling my situation, Freida, don’t be spilling my business. That’s the last thing Dolly asked me for was prayer. And you know, that’s what she said about Freida.”
For most of the world, her death was a shock, and Stella says it’s Dolly’s “optimism” that she will miss the most, adding that she knows her sister was at peace when she passed:
“Her optimism is what I’m gonna miss the most, because she was the most optimistic person I ever knew, and I’m gonna miss that. I don’t miss her struggling in pain. I know she was at peace. I could always tell by looking at her face, even if I hadn’t seen her in months on camera, I could tell if she was hurt, angry, happy or sad or felt bad. I could see it on her.
She’s my sister, we were very close as a family. She knew where she was going. She wasn’t going anywhere bad, she was going to be with mama and daddy. She was definitely prepared.”
Of course, Dolly came from a very religious upbringing and was very open about her Christian faith throughout her life, so that’s not at all surprising to hear.
And funny enough, my favorite part of the interview is when Stella revealed not even she ever saw Dolly without her makeup on. Dolly said in plenty of old interviews that she slept in her makeup, and she was not exaggerating at all:
“I did not… nope. Not after she got to be ‘Dolly Parton.’ She would sleep in her makeup when she would come spend the night with me. Yeah. I wouldn’t, I’d sleep with a pillow over my head, you know… I knew what she looked like, she looked like me without her makeup, so I knew what she looked like without it.”
She was as genuine as they come…
And in terms of how Stella wants the world to remember her beloved sister, she says she hopes they will be inspired by the kind of dreamer Dolly was, coming from a poor family in the hills of the Smoky Mountains to becoming one of the most successful, and beloved, entertainers of all time:
“I want you to remember her as a very sweet, kind, loving, brilliant, and so talented. Her creativity had no bounds, and she could dream bigger than anybody. And I want young people, young girls and boys that may think they have no opportunity to dream, coming from our situation, she gave us permission to dream that way.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
The world just isn’t the same without her, but her music and legacy will certainly live on forever because there will never be another Dolly Parton.
The full interview is available here:
The first
posthumous release, a cover of “Bound to Ride” which is part of the all-star tribute album Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers that’s set to drop on October 16th. The tracks were all recorded live in the studio, except for Dolly’s song, which was actually recorded in 2022 when COVID was still raging and she wasn’t taking any chances. Instead, Dolly recorded at her home studio, and she’s backed by the First Ladies of Bluegrass.
