Country music has lost one of its brightest and most beloved stars.

Dolly Parton, the larger-than-life singer, songwriter, actress and American icon behind classics including “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” has died at age 80.

Her death was announced Tuesday, Aug. 25, by her nephew Brian Seaver in an emotional Instagram video on behalf of the Parton and Owens families.

The devastating news came just four days after Parton spoke publicly about her health struggles — while insisting she still had plenty of dreams left to chase.

“Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!” Parton told PEOPLE on Aug. 21. “I’ve dreamed myself into a corner and I still have so many things I want to achieve.”

Those words have taken on a heartbreaking new meaning following her death.

Seaver, who said he served as Parton’s head of security for more than two decades, revealed that his famous aunt had actually asked him years earlier to make the announcement when the time came.

He described the responsibility as an honor filled with both “absolute pride and great sadness.”

But he said the family believed Dolly was finally reunited with the people she loved most.

“Sadness lies with us, not with Dolly,” Seaver said, adding that the country legend was now “in the arms of Jesus” and surely reunited with her late husband Carl Dean and other loved ones.

Parton’s death comes after a difficult period in her personal life.

Her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, died on March 3, 2025. Parton later admitted she had neglected some of her own health while caring for him.

The couple had one of show business’ most famously private marriages after tying the knot in May 1966.

Following Dean’s death, Parton wrote the emotional song “If You Hadn’t Been There” in his honor.

“Ours is a great old love story,” she said months later. “Most people don’t stay that close that long.”

In recent years, Parton had also faced a series of health setbacks.

She postponed a planned Las Vegas residency in 2025 after doctors told her she needed several medical procedures. She later canceled the shows altogether in May 2026 while telling fans she was responding well to medication and treatment.

Parton continued working through her health problems and remained optimistic about the future.

Just days before her death, she said she was still developing new projects and had no intention of simply disappearing from public life.

It was the same determination that had fueled her extraordinary rise from poverty in the Tennessee mountains to international superstardom.

Born Dolly Rebecca Parton in Tennessee in 1946, she was one of 12 children raised in a family that often struggled to make ends meet.

“We never actually starved, but sometimes we never had quite enough to eat,” she once recalled.

Music became her escape.

Parton began singing at her grandfather’s church as a little girl and was writing songs by the time she was 7.

Immediately after graduating from high school, she headed to Nashville in 1964 with dreams of making it in country music.

Her breakthrough came after Porter Wagoner hired her to appear alongside him on The Porter Wagoner Show.

But Parton soon proved she was destined to become far more than anyone’s sidekick.

She scored her first No. 1 country hit with “Joshua” in 1971, followed by songs that would become American classics.

“Jolene” arrived in 1973.

Then came “I Will Always Love You,” which Parton famously wrote as a farewell to Wagoner when she decided to leave his television show and strike out on her own.

The song later became one of the biggest hits in music history after Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 blockbuster The Bodyguard.

Parton once recalled being stunned when she first heard Houston’s soaring version on the radio.

“That’s when I felt my worth as a songwriter,” she said.

By the end of the 1970s, Dolly was no longer simply a country star.

Hollywood came calling.

She made her major movie debut alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, while her infectious title song shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

She later appeared with Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone and an all-star cast in the beloved 1989 drama Steel Magnolias.

Her unmistakable image — towering blonde hair, rhinestones, long nails and glamorous outfits — became almost as famous as her voice.

And Parton was always in on the joke.

Growing up, she once explained, she had worn homemade clothes and hand-me-downs and dreamed of looking glamorous.

“I wanted my clothes tight, my makeup bright, my nails long, my lips red,” she said.

Behind all that sparkle, however, was one of the most accomplished songwriters and businesswomen in entertainment.

Over her career, Parton sold more than 160 million albums worldwide and collected 11 Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association awards, seven Academy of Country Music awards and multiple other honors.

She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Parton also turned her Tennessee roots into a sprawling business empire with Dollywood, the hugely popular amusement park in the Great Smoky Mountains.

But some of her proudest work happened far away from the stage.

Through her Imagination Library, Parton helped provide free books to millions of children — a mission inspired partly by her father, who never learned to read or write.

Even as she entered her 70s and eventually her 80s, Parton showed little interest in slowing down.

She collaborated with younger superstars including Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter and remained especially close to her goddaughter Miley Cyrus.

Her life story was even turned into Dolly: A True Original Musical, which premiered in Nashville in 2025 with plans for Broadway.

Parton made it clear that she wanted to be involved while she was still alive.

“I wanted to see it done while I’m still around,” she explained, saying she wanted to make sure her story was told the way she believed it should be.

As her 80th birthday approached, Parton remained defiant about getting older.

“Well, so what?” she said when people reminded her of the milestone.

“Look at all I’ve done in 80 years. I feel like I’m just getting started.”

She also admitted there was one thing about aging that truly frightened her — running out of time before she could finish everything she dreamed of doing.

“I just hope I live long enough to do more things,” Parton once said. “That’s the only thing that worries me.”

But she was already thinking beyond her own lifetime.

“I wake up with new dreams all the time,” she said. “But I put them in a place where they can continue, even after I’m gone.”

For millions of fans around the world, that may ultimately be Dolly Parton’s greatest legacy.

The girl who grew up with almost nothing in the Tennessee mountains dreamed her way into becoming one of the most recognizable entertainers America has ever produced — and left behind songs, movies, businesses and charitable work that will continue long after her death.

As Parton herself once famously put it: “Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Few people made quite as much of one as Dolly did.