Dolly Parton, Country Music Icon and Hollywood Star, Dies at 80
Dolly Parton, the country music legend whose extraordinary career stretched from Nashville to Hollywood — and whose influence reached generations of fans and children in Australia — has died. She was 80.
Parton died peacefully Tuesday in Nashville, according to a statement from her family. A cause of death was not disclosed.
Born in Tennessee in 1946 as one of 12 children, Parton rose from poverty in the Great Smoky Mountains to become one of the defining figures in country music, building a career spanning seven decades.
Her catalogue included “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” the latter finding another generation of listeners when Whitney Houston recorded her hugely successful rendition for The Bodyguard in 1992.
Parton’s appeal, however, extended far beyond country music.
She made her major Hollywood breakthrough opposite Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5, also writing and performing its title song. Roles in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Steel Magnolias followed, establishing Parton as a screen presence alongside her formidable music career.
Australia also became a recurring destination during Parton’s touring career. Her 2014 Blue Smoke world tour included 11 Australian performances, beginning at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena before travelling around the country.
But one of Parton’s most significant Australian legacies exists away from the stage.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the childhood literacy initiative she founded in Tennessee in 1995, expanded to Australia in partnership with United Way Australia in 2013. Children enrolled in the program receive a free, age-appropriate book every month from birth until the age of five.
The program has since delivered more than two million books to Australian children, with locally selected titles including works from Indigenous writers and publishers. Australian researchers have also contributed to international studies examining the program’s impact on childhood literacy.
Parton established the initiative in honour of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who never learned to read or write after leaving school early to help support his family.
The Imagination Library has now distributed hundreds of millions of books internationally.
That philanthropic legacy accompanied one of popular culture’s most recognisable careers, spanning music, film, television and business.
For Australian fans, Parton’s legacy will remain not only in the songs and performances she brought Down Under, but in the millions of books bearing her name that arrived on Australian doorsteps.
Dolly Parton was 80.