The country queen, Dolly Parton, passed away at 80 on 25 August 2026, peacefully at her home in Nashville.
Her representatives later confirmed it followed a brief battle with cancer. What happened over the following two days was a country changing color for her.
In New York, the Empire State Building sparkled pink — and the timing was deliberate. The lights ran from 9.25 pm until 10.25 pm, a nod to “9 to 5.” In Nashville, her adopted home, the Metropolitan Courthouse went pink, and so did the airport. In New Orleans, the Superdome, the Crescent City Connection bridge and the National WWII Museum all glowed. Bridges in Boston lit up. Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff. And in San Francisco, fans gathered at Harvey Milk Plaza in the Castro, because Dolly Parton meant something particular to that neighborhood and always said so out loud.
Empire State Building honors Dolly Parton with pink ‘9 to 5’ lighting
The tributes came from people who rarely agree on anything. Taylor Swift said a world without Dolly did not feel possible, or real, or right — that she had given people someone to look up to while telling them to be themselves. Beyoncé, who worked with her on Cowboy Carter, called her “the barometer and the North Star.” Paul McCartney thanked her for the music and remembered meeting her for the first time at the Grand Ole Opry. Reba McEntire posted a set of photographs and signed off with the only four words available: “I will always love you.”
Her 9 to 5 co-stars broke your heart in different ways. Jane Fonda said she was devastated, that Dolly is woven into all our lives forever, and made a point of addressing her gay and trans fans directly to tell them she loved them. Lily Tomlin managed two words: “No words…💔” Sally Field, from Steel Magnolias, wrote that if there are angels on earth, we just lost one. Even The Muppets posted — she was made an honorary Muppet in 1986 — saying she filled the world with light.
Miley Cyrus Goodbye To Dolly Parton
The one that hurt most came from Miley Cyrus, who is her goddaughter. Billy Ray Cyrus asked Dolly to take that role in 1992, before Miley was even born. On Wednesday, Miley wrote: “The feeling of losing my Aunt Dolly is beyond what feels right to share. Our most sacred moments were private.” She said one of their last conversations had been about music and metamorphosis, and ended it with a butterfly.
And then there is the thing everybody is sharing, because it is so perfectly her.
In 2015, when Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort opened, Dolly was asked to write a song that nobody would ever hear in her lifetime. So she did. It is called “My Place in History.” She recorded it, put it in a locked chestnut box — chestnut specifically, as a tribute to her uncle and first mentor Bill Owens, who spent his life trying to save the American chestnut tree — and left instructions that it must not be opened until 19 January 2046. That would have been her 100th birthday.
She was practical about it, too. Knowing nobody in 2046 might own the right equipment, she put a CD player and a cassette player inside the box with it, plus a written summary of what music was like in 2015 and instructions on how to work the thing. In her 2020 book, she wrote about it in the driest possible way: “There’s no telling what music is going to be by then. Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing ain’t rotted.”
Talking to Jimmy Fallon about it in 2022, she pointed out she might still be around when they dug it up, since she would only be 99. Then, to a laughing audience: “I might still be hoppin’ around.” She also admitted she had been trying to get them to let her swap it out. “It was a really good song. I keep wanting ’em to let me dig it up and put something else in it that’s not as good.”
The box sits behind glass at the resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Nobody alive has heard what is on it. In twenty years, Dolly Parton will release one more record.