Dolly Parton liked to tell a story about the time she entered a Dolly Parton lookalike contest at a West Hollywood gay bar. “Me and a bunch of friends decided we’d go down there,” she recalled on a talk show in 2017. “They had these big drag queens, they looked great, prettier than I could ever dream of being. When they walked across the stage... whoever got the most applause won the contest. Here I come walking across the stage, and I got the least applause! So I always say, it’s terrible when [you’re Dolly Parton and you] lose a Dolly Parton lookalike contest!”The Queen of Country’s death at the age of 80 has been announced by her family, sparking a global outpouring of grief. While she may have had a look that was easy to replicate, she was unquestionably one of a kind. A sharecropper’s daughter born in a two-room log cabin in rural Tennessee, her songwriting savvy and shrewd mind for business made her wealthy beyond her wildest dreams, with an estimated net worth of $500 million.One of the most famous musicians on the planet, she was beloved across political and social divides: a self-made country music star and committed Christian who never forgot her Southern roots while championing LGBTQ rights, pouring money into childhood literacy programs and helping to fund a Covid vaccine.Growing up “dirt poor” as the fourth of 12 children, Parton started singing in the local church at the age of six but later said she modeled her iconic look after “the town tramp”, despite the protestations of her father and a beating from her grandfather, a preacher. “I didn't know what she was, just this woman who was blond and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I'd ever seen,” Parton recalled. “Momma used to say, ‘Aw, she’s just trash,’ and I thought, ‘That’s what I want to be when I grow up. Trash.’” She maintained her larger-than-life image until her death, often quipping: “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.”Dolly Parton, seen here launching her album 'Rockstar' in Nashville in 2023, said she based her iconic look on ‘the town tramp’ (Jason Kempin/Getty Images for American Greetings)Dolly Parton, performing with Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves in February 2019, inspired and collaborated with generations of singers and artists (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)Parton moved to Nashville to pursue her musical dreams the day after she graduated high school. That same day, while sat outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat waiting for her laundry, she met a Nashville local who warned her she could get sunburned. That was Carl Dean, who she married two years later in 1966. They remained together for 59 years until his death in March 2025, and during that time were seen so rarely in public that fans began to speculate he might not even exist. Parton, who described him as a “homebody and a loner”, wrote in her 1994 memoir that he had simply explained to her after his sole trip to a major music event shortly after their marriage that he preferred life out of the limelight. “I love you, and I will support you in your career any way I can,” Parton recalled him saying. “But I am not going to any more of these wingdings.”Dean did, however, inspire countless of Parton’s songs. Most famously, it was a bank teller with eyes for Dean who inspired “Jolene”, the infectious 1973 country staple that became Parton’s signature anthem. Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon MusicSign up now for a 30-day free trial. Terms apply.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Dolly Parton is saluted by Keith Urban and Eric Church at the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame Gala in October 2023 (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”Her husband’s decision to avoid any contact with the press contributed to long-running rumors about Parton having affairs with her collaborators, stories she didn’t exactly outright deny. “I've been accused of being involved with every man I'm ever seen with or worked with,” she told ABC News in 2012. “Maybe I have, maybe I ain't. I never tell if I have. But you know people always saying that.”She did however reject the suggestion that she was secretly in a lesbian relationship with her assistant and childhood friend, Judy Ogle, telling the New York Daily News that same year: “I’m not gay. If I was gay, I would have come out of the closet just a-flying.”Dolly Parton and Carl Dean, who were married for almost 59 years (Instagram/Dolly Parton)So little was known about Parton’s life offstage that another persistent rumor centered on her penchant for outfits that, while skintight, kept her body fully covered. One theory claimed that she was covered neck-to-toe in tattoos. That wasn’t true, she told People in 2020, but over the years she did get inked once or twice to cover up surgical scars. "I do have some tattoos, that's true, but they're tasteful. I'm not a tattoo girl,” she said. “Ribbons and bows and butterflies are the things that I have.”“I was very sick for a while and I had to wear a feeding tube,” she added, referring to gynecological and digestive problems she faced in the early 1980s. “It left a little indention in my side and I didn't like it because I’m so fair that scars turn purple on me. I like to make positives out of negatives. I had a little beehive tattooed over it — a little yellow-and-brown beehive with a tiny little bee on top of the hive. The mouth of it is that little sinkhole."She was open about her decision to undergo cosmetic surgery throughout her life, with a breast augmentation early in her career contributing to her signature look. She later had a breast reduction, as well as using Botox, fillers and having a number of facelifts. When health issues forced her to postpone a Las Vegas residency in 2025, she joked: “It must be time for my 100,000-mile check-up, although it’s not the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon!”Dolly Parton accepted the Kennedy Center Honors from President George W. Bush in 2006 (along with Smokey Robinson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Steven Spielberg and Zubin Mehta), but later turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times (Eric Draper/The White House via Getty Images)Parton was more taciturn when it came to her political allegiances, never endorsing any specific candidates or parties. While she accepted the Kennedy Center Honors from President George W. Bush in 2006, she later turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times. “I got offered the Freedom award from the Trump administration,” she told NBC in 2021. “I couldn't accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn't travel because of the COVID.” She explained that she was offered the prize once more by President Joe Biden, but again declined for fear of appearing to make a political statement. “Now I feel like if I take it, I'll be doing politics, so I'm not sure,” she remarked. “I don't work for those awards. It'd be nice, but I'm not sure that I even deserve it. But that's a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”She was equally modest when first approached about being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After being nominated in 2022 she attempted to withdraw, saying in a statement that: “I don't feel that I have earned that right.” She eventually acquiesced, and was inducted by Pink, but declared her intention to release a rock album in order to justify her inclusion. She followed through in 2023 by releasing Rockstar, an album that saw Parton covering songs by the likes of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Queen aided by guests including Beatles stars Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Elton John and Blondie’s Debbie Harry.Dolly Parton with the singer Pink being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November 2022, after initially turning the honor down. She later released a rock’n’roll album, 2023’s ‘Rockstar’ (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)“I wanted it to be good, because I wanted rock artists to hear it and say, ‘Well, you know, that ain’t bad!’” Parton told The Independent at the time. She added that she had actually considered recording a rock album years ago, “but then I started getting older and I thought, bah, maybe I need to move on, ’cos nobody’s gonna take me serious.” After the Rock Hall came calling, she reconsidered. “I thought it turned out really well,” she said. “I’m proud of it!”It came as little surprise that so many of rock’s biggest names lined up to make music with Parton. She collaborated with a diverse range of artists throughout her career, earning some of her earliest hits with her country music mentor Porter Wagoner and recording with peers such as Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers, a union which produced the huge 1983 hit “Islands In The Stream”.Dolly Parton with fellow country icon and collaborator Willie Nelson in 2001 (Scott Gries/ImageDirect)In 1994 she duetted with Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias on “When You Tell Me That You Love Me”, and in recent years worked with a host of younger musicians from across several genres who all looked up to her. She sang with Beyoncé on country crossover record Cowboy Carter, an album that also saw the former Destiny’s Child star offer up her own take on “Jolene”, and appeared on a remix of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please”. She worked frequently with Miley Cyrus, who she had known since she was a child after Billy Ray Cyrus asked her to be his daughter’s godmother. The pair were also distant cousins, and Cyrus told W Magazine in 2024 that Parton had been “like a mother to me.”Dolly Parton performing with Miley Cyrus, her goddaughter, in 2019. Cyrus said Parton was ‘like a mother to me’ (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)Parton’s influence extended far beyond just the music industry. After working on the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5 with Jane Fonda, the pair began a friendship they maintained until her death. In 2017, Fonda recalled being taken on a trip to the Ozarks to drink moonshine with Parton’s cousin. “She taught me how to put your thumb in the jug and hoist it up, and I didn’t know I was drunk,” said Fonda with a laugh. “I was drunk for 10 days and I didn’t know it until I got home!” Their friendship also had a serious side. In 2022, they appeared together in the documentary Still Working 9 to 5, which reflected on their subversive and trailblazing film in the light of the workplace and pay inequalities that still persisted over four decades later.Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, seen here in 2006, remained firm friends after the success of their film '9 to 5'. They later worked on the documentary ‘Still Working 9 to 5’ (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)"People are still working their nine-to-five jobs, and women are still trying to find their equal pay and their equal importance, and I'm all about that," Parton told NBC when the film was released. "I’m proud of the documentary and I hope it goes well."As much as she avoided labelling herself as a political figure, it was always evident that Parton was determined to use her good fortune to be a positive force in the world. She raised millions for numerous good causes, including the American Red Cross and several HIV/AIDS-related charities, and was involved in charitable campaigns ranging from relief from wildfires in the Great Smoky Mountains to the American Eagle Foundation's efforts to preserve the bald eagle.She was also a prolific businesswoman, with a diverse range of successful business ventures including TV specials, frozen food and her own Dollywood theme park in Tennessee. Among various rides and attractions, the park features a replica of the tiny log cabin where she was born.Dolly Parton meeting schoolchildren in Rotherham during the launch of the UK's first Imagination Library. She told The Independent she wanted to be remembered as ‘someone who brought books to children all over the world’ (Getty Images)Her proudest achievement, however, was her Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library. The scheme mails a new, free book to children from around the world, from their birth until they begin kindergarten. Parton, who never had children herself, funded the project in memory of her father. “My own father didn't get a chance to go to school,” she told CNN in 2016. “He couldn't read and write, and that hindered him a great deal because he was so smart. It really bothered him a lot.” At the time of her death, Parton’s Imagination Library was mailing books to almost 850,000 children each month in 1,600 communities across the U.S., Canada, the UK, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. In February 2018, Parton celebrated donating her 100 millionth free book.“I want to be remembered as somebody who took her work serious, but not herself,” she told The Independent, when asked about her legacy. “Someone who brought books to children all over the world. For the fact that I managed to make a living doing something I love to do. And as a caring, giving, working girl.”She’ll be remembered as all of that, and much more besides. She earned it. As she sang on 2008’s “Somebody’s Everything”: “All I want is everything, is that too much to ask?”