Dolly Rebecca Parton Dean (; January 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026) was an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman. Dubbed the "Queen of Country", Parton was one of the most successful performers in the history of country music. She was also known for her cultural influence, particularly through Dollywood and the Dollywood Foundation. With more than a hundred million records sold, Parton was among the best-selling music artists in history.
Born and raised in East Tennessee, Parton wrote her first song at age six, performed regularly on television by age ten, made her first recording a year later, and became a professional songwriter at sixteen. After writing songs for others, she released her debut album, Hello, I'm Dolly in 1967, starting her nearly sixty-year career. Parton released 49 studio albums and wrote more than 3,000 songs, including "I Will Always Love You"a two-time US country chart-topper and an international success for Whitney Houston that became the best-selling single by a woman"Jolene", "Coat of Many Colors", and "9to5". The lattermost, as well as the Kenny Rogers duet "Islands in the Stream", reached No.1 on the Billboard Hot100. Her final solo studio album, Rockstar (2023), became her highest-charting album on the Billboard200, reaching No.3.
Parton starred in the comedy films 9 to 5 (1980), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Rhinestone (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Straight Talk (1992), and Joyful Noise (2012). She produced and starred in a series of Netflix features including Christmas on the Square (2021), which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award. She also played Aunt Dolly in Hannah Montana (2006–2010), hosted Saturday Night Live (1989), and guest-starred on Reba (2005) and Grace and Frankie (2022). She wrote the music and lyrics for Broadway's 9to5 (2009), which earned her a Tony Award nomination. Her life will be depicted in Dolly: A True Original Musical (2026).
Parton's music received 52 gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her accolades include eleven Grammy Awards and three Emmy Awards. She logged 25 No.1 Billboard country singles (tied with Reba McEntire for the most by a woman), 44 career Top10 country albums (a record for any artist), and 110 career-charted singles over forty years. Parton was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1984), the National Medal of Arts (2004), the Kennedy Center Honor (2006), the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (2025).
Early life Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River in Pittman Center, Tennessee. She was the fourth of twelve children born to Avie Lee Carolina () and Robert Lee Parton. Her three elder siblings are Willadeene, David Wilburn, and Coy Denver; her younger siblings are Robert Lee "Bobby" Jr., Stella Mae, Cassie Nan, Randle Huston "Randy", Larry Garrold (who died shortly after birth in 1955), twins Frieda Estelle and Floyd Estel, and Rachel Ann. Parton's middle name came from her maternal great-great-grandmother, Rebecca Whitted (née Dunn).
Parton's father, who went by his middle name "Lee", worked in the mountains of East Tennessee, first as a sharecropper and later tending his own small tobacco farm and acreage. He also worked construction jobs to supplement the farm's small income. Despite his illiteracy, Parton often said her father was one of the smartest people she had ever known with regard to business and making a profit.
Parton credited her musical abilities to her mother's influence. Avie Lee Parton's many pregnancies often occurred while still breastfeeding her current infant at the time. This caused her to be ill and weak for many years. However, she still managed to keep house with the help of Parton's eldest sibling, Willadeene. Mrs. Parton entertained her children with Great Smoky Mountain folklore and old world ballads. The ballads had been brought to the early United States, particularly southern Appalachia, by immigrants from the British Isles. Having descended from parents with Welsh ancestry, Avie Lee grew up singing the ballads. Avie Lee's father, Jake Robert Owens, was a Pentecostal preacher who pastored the Church of God, and Parton and her siblings attended church there. Music played an important role in Parton's early life. Her earliest public performances were in the church, beginning at age six. At seven, she started playing a homemade guitar. When she was eight, her uncle bought her first guitar.
When Parton was still young, her family moved to a two‑room cabin and farm on nearby Locust Ridge. Most of her cherished childhood memories happened there. A replica of the Locust Ridge cabin is displayed at her namesake theme park. The Partons' small subsistence farm on Locust Ridge was in a predominantly Pentecostal area located north of the Greenbrier Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains. The farm acreage and surrounding woodland inspired her to write "My Tennessee Mountain Home" in the 1970s. Years after the farm was sold, Parton bought it back in the late 1980s. Her brother Bobby helped with the restoration of the building as well as new construction.
Parton said her family was "dirt poor". Her father paid missionary Robert F. Thomas with a sack of cornmeal for delivering her. Later in life, Parton wrote a song about Thomas. She also outlined her family's poverty in her early songs "Coat of Many Colors" and "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)". The Parton family was well-fed despite their poverty, and her 2024 cookbook, Good Lookin' Cookin (co-written with her sister Rachel), recalls numerous family meals. The day after graduating from Sevier County High School in Sevierville, Tennessee, in 1964, Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
Music career 1956–1966: Early work and songwriting Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the East Tennessee area. By age ten she had appeared on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIRTV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At thirteen, she recorded the single "Puppy Love" for the Louisiana label Goldband Records and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, where she first met Johnny Cash. He introduced her as "a little girl here from up in East Tennessee" and encouraged her to follow her own instincts regarding her career.
Parton's initial success came as a songwriter. She signed with Combine Publishing shortly after her arrival in Nashville. Working with her frequent songwriting partner, her uncle Bill Owens, she wrote several charting singles, including two Top10 hits for Bill Phillips: "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" and "The Company You Keep" (1966). She also wrote Skeeter Davis's No.11 hit "Fuel to the Flame" (1967). Her songs were recorded by many other artists during this period, including Kitty Wells and Hank Williams Jr..
At 19, she signed with Monument Records in 1965, where she was initially pitched as a bubblegum pop singer. She released several singles, but only "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" charted, and it failed to reach the Billboard Hot100. Although she wanted to record country material, Monument resisted, thinking her unusually high soprano voice was not suited to the genre.
After Bill Phillips' recording of her composition "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" reached No. 6 on the country chart in 1966, the label relented and allowed her to record country. Her first country single, "Dumb Blonde", written by Curly Putman, reached No.24 on the country chart in 1967. It was followed by "Something Fishy", which reached No.17. Both singles appeared on her first full-length album, Hello, I'm Dolly.
1967–1975: Country music success
In 1967, musician and country music entertainer Porter Wagoner invited Parton to join The Porter Wagoner Show, offering her a regular spot on his weekly syndicated television program and in his road show. As documented in her 1994 autobiography, much of Wagoner's audience was initially unhappy that Parton had replaced previous performer Norma Jean who had left the show, sometimes chanting loudly for Norma Jean from the audience. With Wagoner's assistance, Parton was eventually accepted. Wagoner convinced his label, RCA Victor, to sign her. RCA decided to protect its investment by releasing her first single as a duet with Wagoner. That song, a remake of Tom Paxton's "The Last Thing on My Mind", released in late 1967, reached the country Top10 in January 1968, launching a six-year run of uninterrupted Top10 singles for the pair.
Parton's first solo single for RCA Victor, "Just Because I'm a Woman", was released in the summer of 1968 and reached No.17. For the next two years, none of her solo efforts even "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)", which later became a standardwere as successful as her duets with Wagoner. The duo was named Vocal Group of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association, but Parton's solo records continued to be ignored. Wagoner had a significant financial stake in her future; from 1969 he was her co-producer and owned nearly half of Owe-Par, the publishing company Parton had founded with Bill Owens. Parton joined the Nashville Association of Musicians, a labor union representing professional musicians, in 1968 and remained a dues-paying member until her death in 2026.
By 1970, both Parton and Wagoner had grown frustrated by her lack of solo chart success. Wagoner persuaded Parton to record Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues". The record reached No.3, followed by her first No.1 single, "Joshua" in February 1971. For the next two years she had numerous solo hits in addition to her duets, including her signature "Coat of Many Colors". Further Top20 singles included "The Right Combination" and "Burning the Midnight Oil" (both duets with Wagoner, 1971); "Lost Forever in Your Kiss" (with Wagoner), "Touch Your Woman" (1972); "My Tennessee Mountain Home", and "Travelin' Man" (1973).
While her solo singles and the Wagoner duets were successful, her biggest success from this period was "Jolene". Released in late 1973, the song topped the country chart in February 1974 and reached the lower regions of the Hot100. It also eventually charted in the UK, reaching No.7 in 1976, Parton's first UK success. Parton, who had always envisioned a solo career, decided to leave Wagoner's show and stopped appearing in mid-1974. The pair performed their last duet concert in April 1974 although they remained affiliated, with Wagoner helping to produce her records through 1975.[ Dolly Parton profile], Allmusic.com. Retrieved March 31, 2014. Their final release as a duo was 1975's Say Forever You'll Be Mine.
In 1974, Parton's song, "I Will Always Love You", written about her professional break from Wagoner, went to No.1 on the country chart. Around the same time, Elvis Presley indicated that he wanted to record the song. Parton was interested until Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, told her that it was standard procedure for the songwriter to sign over half the publishing rights to any song recorded by Presley., CMT; July 7, 2006. Parton refused. That decision was later credited with earning her many millions of dollars in royalties from the song. That year, Parton had three solo singles reach No.1 on the country chart, "Jolene", "I Will Always Love You", and "Love Is Like a Butterfly", and the duet with Wagoner, "Please Don't Stop Loving Me". She again topped the country chart in 1975 with "The Bargain Store".
1976–1986: A broader audience
Between 1974 and 1980, Parton had a series of country hits with eight singles reaching No. 1. Her influence on pop culture was reflected in the many performers who covered her songs, including mainstream and crossover artists such as Olivia Newton-John, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt.