It’s a sad day in America and all across the globe as it was just announced that music legend, philanthropist, actor, camp icon, and all around amazing human being Dolly Parton has died. She was 80 years old.
A video announcing Parton’s death was posted to her social channels this afternoon. In it, Bryan Seaver, son of Parton’s sister Cassie Parton, and head of the her security detail for over 20 years, delivered a brief eulogy to his dearly departed aunt, who he said “lived in the light.”
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Seaver provided no cause of death and the exact date and time of her passing were not disclosed.
Concerns about the icon’s health began last year after she postponed and later canceled a Las Vegas residency, prompting Parton to take to social media last fall to assure her fans that “I ain’t dead yet.” In May of this year, she said she had responded well to treatment after, as she put it, her immune and digestive systems “got all out of whack.”
Dolly Parton was a trailblazer and a relentlessly hard worker whose accomplishments are, honestly, too numerous to list, though the New York Times did an excellent job attempting to do just that, if you’d like to take a look and bask for 2500 words or so in a small sampling of her immense greatness.
We will miss you Dolly. Thank you for all that you gave to this world. What a truly wonderful place it would be if everyone tried to be a little more like you.
