By
Emily Leibert,
a staff writer for The Cut.
She specializes in coverage at the intersection of gender and sports, the arts, and our relationship to our bodies.
Friends, family members, and fans across the globe are mourning Dolly Parton, who died at 80 on Tuesday. Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced the news on Instagram with a video posted to Parton’s account. Over the course of her storied career, the Queen of Country produced 49 studio albums, racked up 11 Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999. But her greatest gift to the world, aside from her barbed quips and rhinestone cowboy boots, were her songs: soul-drenched ballads that spanned generations of music lovers, speaking life and familiarity into everyday heartbreaks — “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” and countless others.
