Dolly was an incredible aunt until the very end.
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. Dolly’s reps confirmed she sadly died following a “brief battle with cancer,” though the specific kind was not revealed.
This week, her Estate announced that her niece, Danielle Parton, is its official Brand Ambassador. Danielle is the daughter of Dolly’s older brother, Bobby, and she is a a commercial airline pilot, military veteran and entrepreneur as well.
She spent 20 years in the military and now runs Shine Girl, her moonshine distillery in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
The Estate shared a statement saying that Danielle:
“Embodies the quick wit, strong work ethic and independent spirit that have made her aunt, Dolly Parton, an enduring cultural icon…
With her natural charm, entrepreneurial drive and unmistakable Parton personality, Danielle is a fitting ambassador to help celebrate Dolly’s legacy and connect with fans around the world. Danielle and Dolly shared a special family bond rooted in the qualities that have long defined the Parton family.”
Dolly delivered a speech at Danielle’s military retirement in 2025, and the two of them were very close, and it’s easy to see they were related… Danielle looks a LOT like her famous aunt:
And during an interview with Extra this week, Danielle says she’s gotten that many times throughout her life:
“Oh, I’ve heard it before, yeah.”
She explained that she’s still “a little overwhelmed” with the outpouring of love and support in the wake of Dolly’s death, but it has been incredible for the family to witness just how beloved she was by so many all over the world:
“I’m still a little overwhelmed. I’ve always known that Dolly was a huge star, but it’s fascinating to me to see the outpouring of love since she’s passed.”
Of the video Dolly filmed for her niece’s military retirement in her final months of life, Danielle said that Dolly always made her nieces feel like they were “the best” and the “prettiest” girls int he world, a testament to her true and
“As we were putting that together, I was shocked that we had that introduction. She always acted like we were the prettiest, the best.”
Here’s part of that video:
Sadly, Danielle also revealed that she is dealing with her own cancer battle right now, and while she didn’t get too specific, she says they caught it early and she’s at “stage zero” so it sounds like she’s going to be just fine, thankfully.
She also said that Dolly took it “really heavy” when Danielle told her, and Danielle started to figure out that Dolly might dealing with her own cancer battle.
She says it was around August 6th when they had that conversation, and Danielle told her it wasn’t “that deep,” and o
“I am going through a little bit of a cancer battle myself right now. I’m okay, stage zero, caught it early, getting it done. But she took it really heavy, and that’s how I figured out. I didn’t know, like anybody else, what she was dealing with. I knew she was sick.
And that was around August 6th when I talked to her, and I figured out that she was dealing with cancer most likely, at that point. She was just devastated that I was going through it, and I remember telling her, look, you gotta get it together, it ain’t that deep. I just wanted you to know because you knew I was having a biopsy.’
And if she’d remembered, she would have got all over me, she would have called and really chewed me a good one. She worried more about everybody else, before she would ever let you know that anything was wrong with her.”
Several of Dolly’s extended family members, like her cousins and those kinds of relatives, revealed they didn’t know that Dolly was dealing with cancer, and even people like her nieces didn’t know what she was dealing with, either. It sounds like only a small group of very close relatives knew how sick she was, or that she was even sick at all, and that’s how Dolly wanted it.
Like Danielle mentioned, Dolly was always worried about others more than herself, and I think she would be very proud of Danielle and how she’s going to continue on their family legacy and all of the great work she started.
You can watch the full interview here:
