Dolly Parton, the singer, songwriter and actress who rose from a poor family in the Tennessee mountains and became one of American music’s biggest stars, died Tuesday at 80 in Nashville. Her popularity won her millions of fans over generations and crossed some of the deepest cultural and political divides of recent decades, as she managed the difficult feat of speaking about issues that mattered to her while remaining apart from partisan politics in an increasingly polarized country.
Parton, who created hit songs such as Jolene, I Will Always Love You and 9 to 5, and sold more than 100 million records, had a career spanning more than six decades and was one of the most recognizable figures in American culture. Although she never took on a Republican red or Democratic blue label, she also never remained silent. She was born in 1946 in the Tennessee mountains into a family of 12 children that she herself described as extremely poor, yet she rose to the biggest stages and Hollywood to build an empire around her name.
Throughout her career, the artist steadfastly refused to choose between Republicans and Democrats or to endorse candidates, saying she had fans across the political spectrum and was not the person to tell them how to vote or think. But she also took clear stances on contentious issues such as women’s rights, gay and transgender rights, as well as on racism and workers’ rights.
“Everybody knows I don’t do politics,” she said in a 2017 interview after a controversial appearance at the Emmy Awards alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, her co-stars from the 1980 film 9 to 5. The remarks were interpreted by some as directed at Donald Trump, something Parton refused to become embroiled in. Fonda said that in the film their characters rebelled against a boss who was a “sexist, egotistical, lying hypocritical bigot,” and Tomlin added that they still refused to be controlled by someone like that, a not-so-subtle reference to the Republican magnate.
Two years later, in another interview with The Guardian, Parton said of the incident: “If I’ve got something to say, I’ll say it, but I don’t want to be dragged into it.” She also acknowledged that she obviously had political opinions, but preferred not to share them if it meant losing half of her audience. “I respect my audience too much for that,” she explained. She added that an artist could “ruin a career for speaking out.”
It was a difficult line to maintain over the years. In 2016, during the presidential contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, when asked by The New York Times about the possibility of a woman becoming president, she said Clinton was “very qualified” and that if she won, Parton would support her — remarks several outlets interpreted as an endorsement of the Democratic candidate. Parton issued a statement clarifying that she had not endorsed any candidate, that she did not know who she would vote for, and that her comment that a woman could do a good job in the White House had been taken out of context.
In 2021 she said the Joe Biden administration had offered her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., but that previously the first Trump administration had offered it to her twice and she had had to decline — first because her husband was ill and later because of the pandemic. “Now I feel that, if I accept it, I’ll be doing politics,” she said on the Today show. She therefore never picked up the medal.
On Tuesday, Trump ordered the flag at the White House to be flown at half-mast in honor of the singer.
Despite her aversion to being associated with any party or politician, Parton made her positions on specific issues clear. On same-sex marriage, she expressed support even before the Supreme Court recognized it. “We’re not supposed to try to change people. We should allow people to be who they are, and love them as they are,” she said.
Years later, when laws began appearing regulating which bathrooms transgender people could use, Parton said everyone should be treated with respect.
She also spoke forcefully about racism. In 2020, after the death of George Floyd and the nationwide protests against racism and police violence, she told Billboard that “of course Black lives matter. Everybody matters.” She also removed the word Dixie from the name of a show because it was a term associated with the Confederacy and could be considered offensive.
She also defended gender equality. Although she said that if being a feminist meant supporting women then she was one, she added that she would not march, hold a sign, or wear “a label.” Similarly, she said there should be “equal pay for equal work” between men and women.
As a musician, perhaps where she made her position clearest was on her 2023 song World on Fire, which criticizes “greedy politicians, present and past.” I ain’t one for speakin’ out much / But that don’t mean I don’t stay in touch, the lyrics say. Everybody’s trippin’ over this or that / What we gonna do when we all fall flat? How do we heal this great divide? / Do we care enough to try? When asked which politician she meant in the song, she replied “all of them,” adding that many cared more “about the party than about the people.” Even so, she said it was not a partisan song but a reflection on the state of the country and the world. “I’m not political. I hate politics,” she said.
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