Legendary singer-songwriter and country music icon Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.

“I’ve told her some things that I think are valuable and that she uses, but I’d rather live [as] an example,” Parton of her relationship with Cyrus. “[I’d rather] be an example rather than just try to tell somebody to do this, do that because I don’t think that’s right. Everybody’s different.”

She owned the located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. She was also heavily involved in philanthropy, most notably her Imagination Library, which mails one book a month to children from birth until kindergarten. She was inspired in part by her father, who never learned to read or write.

Parton married . Dean opted to stay out of the spotlight but encouraged his wife. “He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it,” Parton  “He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes, but he’s at home. I don’t think they’re probably showing much of this on TV, and if they do, he might see it.”

“I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love,” Parton told  in 2018. “I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”

Dean died on March 3, 2025. Parton announced his death on Instagram writing, “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”

Days after his death, Parton paid tribute to her late husband with a song titled

“Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,” she wrote on Instagram announcing the song alongside a rare throwback photo of the couple.

Parton reflected on their love story and her grief in a November 2025 PEOPLE cover story.