{"description":"Dolly Parton, the irrepressible singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur, has died. She was 80. A representative announced that she died peacefully in Nashville. Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on Jan. 19, 1946, in the Smoky Mountains town of Pittman Center, Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 children born to Avie Lee Owens and Robert Lee Parton, a sharecropper, tobacco farmer and occasional construction worker. By age 7, Parton had taught herself to play a homemade guitar. Parton soon had a performing career, singing on local radio and TV shows. After a couple of recordings for small labels, she landed an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry when she was 13. She started a several-year collaboration with country star Porter Wagoner, dueting with him on his television show. Her list of accomplishments were unmatched. This list is just a few of them:\n\u2013 25 number-one hits on the Billboard country music charts.\n\u2013 Solo hits \u201c9 to 5\u201d, \u201cHere You Come Again\u201d, \u201cJolene\u201d, \u201cI Will Always Love You\u201d, \u201cCoat of Many Colors\u201d\n\u2013 Recorded several beautiful \u201cTrio\u201d albums with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.\n\u2013 Starred on movies \u201c9 to 5\u201d, \u201cSteel Magnolias\u201d, \u201cThe Best Little Whorehouse in Texas\u201d\n\u2013 Created Dollywood, and promoted it into one of the world\u2019s top amusement destinations.\n\u2013 Just opened the first of a projected chain of Dolly\u2019s Tennessean Travel Stop, a highway travel stop and gas station\n\u2013 Started the Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library in 1995 to honor her father, who could not read or write. The library mails one free book every month to children from birth to age five.\n\u2013 Founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to decrease high school dropout rates in Sevier County, Tennessee.\n\u2013 Created the Buddy Program, which offered $500 to local students who graduated, dropping the dropout rate from 35% to 6%.\n\u2013 Provided full tuition coverage for Dollywood employees pursuing higher education.\n\u2013 Gave $1 million to Vanderbilt for pediatric infectious disease research and supported local hospital expansions.\n\u2013 Established the My People Fund in 2016 to give $1,000 monthly to families who lost homes in East Tennessee wildfires.\n\u2013 Currently developing a Broadway show based on her music.\n\u2013 If you have another hour, we could go on.\nDolly\u2019s husband of nearly 58 years, businessman Carl Dean, died at age 82 last year, on March 3, 2025.","height":315,"html":"
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