Dolly Parton, the country music icon whose career spanned more than six decades of songwriting, acting and philanthropy, died Tuesday, Aug. 25, at age 80, her family announced.
Parton sold more than 100 million records and won 11 Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, during a career that produced songs such as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You.”
Her work also reached the military community through performances for service members, patriotic music, USO programming and literacy efforts serving military children.
Parton never served in uniform, but her association with the military endured long enough for the Air Force to put her image on a KC-135 Stratotanker.
“I first went on the road with Dolly as a kid, getting a taste of the road life in the early 1980s,” Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, said in a video announcement of her death posted on Instagram. “Dolly opened doors not just for me but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible.
“Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent. By her example, we believed that anything is possible. She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”
The Air Force’s ‘Miss Dolly’
In September 2004, Parton visited McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in her home state of Tennessee to unveil nose art bearing her likeness on a KC-135 assigned to the 134th Air Refueling Wing.
The aircraft was named “Miss Dolly.” Parton autographed the artwork and performed several songs for airmen and their families during the event, according to an Air National Guard photo record preserved by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.
The tribute came less than a year after Parton released one of the most overtly patriotic projects of her career.
For God and Country, released on Veterans Day in 2003, combined standards such as “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” and “The Ballad of the Green Beret” with original Parton songs.
“I’m not a bit political, but I’m extremely patriotic,” Parton said of the album, according to her official website.
Several of her compositions addressed war and its consequences for military families. “Daddy Won’t Be Home Anymore,” released in 1970, follows a mother preparing to tell her children that their father has died at war.
“Welcome Home,” from For God and Country, centers on a parent waiting for a son to return from overseas.
The album also included “Brave Little Soldier,” “I’m Gonna Miss You,” “Red, White & Bluegrass” and “Color Me America.” The latter called for patriotism grounded in peace, justice and national unity.
From the USO to Boosting the Literacy of Military Children
Parton continued engaging directly with troops later in her career.
In December 2022, she participated in a virtual USO program in which service members stationed around the world and their families could speak with her and ask questions.
During the conversation, Parton discussed her career, songwriting and plans to record the rock album that eventually became Rockstar. The appearance was part of the USO’s Military Virtual Programming series, Military.com reported at the time.
Her best-known charitable program developed a direct connection to military families.
In 2024, the Washington affiliate of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library partnered with the Government Employees Health Association on a $15,000 grant to expand free books for young children in military families. The program served families at Naval Base Kitsap, Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Station Everett.
Organizers said the books could provide continuity and comfort for military children while giving families another way to remain connected and build memories together, according to the Imagination Library of Washington.
Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995 after being inspired by her father’s inability to read and write. The program eventually expanded to five countries and distributed millions of books each month.
That work became part of a legacy extending beyond Parton’s recordings and rhinestone costumes.
For generations of troops and military families, she was the woman whose face flew on an Air Force tanker, whose songs recognized wartime sacrifice, and whose literacy program placed books in the hands of military children everywhere.
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