Reba McEntire is one of country music’s best-loved stars, a singer and actress fans have followed for more than forty years. This Friday her NBC comedy “Happy’s Place” will do something a sitcom almost never does. It will stop for a moment to say goodbye to a friend.
That friend is Dolly Parton, the beloved country legend behind songs like “Jolene” and “9 to 5,” who passed away on August 25, 2026. Reba and Dolly were close for decades.
The episode, called “Skeletons in the Closet,” airs Friday, October 30 at 8 PM Eastern, with a next-day replay on Peacock. It ends on a smiling photo of the two women and five simple words on the screen.
Those words are “We will always love you.”
The picture comes from 2021, when Reba and Dolly teamed up to sing a new version of Reba’s old hit “Does He Love You.” If you’ve never seen the two of them trade lines on that song, it’s worth a watch. That duet is the whole reason the tribute photo exists.
One setup line first: here are Reba and Dolly together on the song the Friday photo is pulled from.
Reba and Dolly sing “Does He Love You” together
Dolly passed away the same week the “Happy’s Place” cast was filming. Reba told USA Today that everyone on set was “pretty tore up.”
And then, while they were shooting, something small happened that Reba says she’d never heard about. One of the camera operators had worked with Dolly years before, on Reba’s old sitcom “Reba” back in 2005. Dolly had guest starred that season, around Valentine’s Day. The crew member remembered what she did for every single person working behind the scenes.
Here’s the memory, told to Reba on set. Back in 2005, the camera operator said, Dolly handed a candy heart to every crew member. Not the stars. The crew. The people you never see.
Reba was surprised to hear it. “I didn’t even know that story,” she told USA Today. “But that’s the type of person she was. I never have met a person that says, ‘I don’t like Dolly Parton.’ Everybody loves her worldwide and was touched by her passing.”
You can see Dolly on that very “Reba” set in the clip below, from the 2005 episode the cameraman was talking about.
Dolly Parton guest stars on the sitcom “Reba” in 2005
Reba has been sharing what Dolly meant to her in the weeks since. On a recent talk show visit she opened up about the week Dolly spent on the “Reba” set and the way she treated everyone the same.
Reba put it plainly to USA Today. “Every memory I have with Dolly is a good one. I am so fortunate and blessed to got to do a song with her.”
Hear Reba tell it in her own words here.
Reba talks about what Dolly Parton taught her
So Friday night, when the laughs stop and that photo comes up, a lot of folks at home will already know the little candy-heart story the rest of the world missed. Dolly had a way of doing that, quietly, for years.