Dolly Parton, the singer who represented American country music, died at 80.
According to AP and Reuters on the 25th (local time), Parton's nephew Brian Seaver said in a video posted on social media (SNS) that Parton died in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.
Parton was known to have experienced health issues in recent years. After postponing and then canceling her Las Vegas residency last year, speculation about health problems grew, and in May this year she said she was responding well to treatment.
Born in 1946 into a poor family in Tennessee as one of 12 siblings, Parton established herself as a star representing American country music while working as a singer-songwriter, actor, broadcaster, and author.
Jolene, released in 1973, gained global popularity, and the following year she released I Will Always Love You, which she wrote and composed herself. In 1992, Whitney Houston remade the song as the theme for the film The Bodyguard, and it was loved again.
Her representative songs also include the title track of the 1980 comedy film 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream, which she sang with Kenny Rogers.
Over her lifetime, she wrote more than 3,000 songs and released 49 albums, and her worldwide record sales exceeded 100 million. She also received 11 Grammy Awards, including a lifetime achievement award. In 2001 she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in 2022 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Parton was also known for active philanthropy. She founded the nonprofit Imagination Library, which sends free books to children, and supported more than 300 million books in countries around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University for vaccine research.
U.S. President Donald Trump expressed his condolences, saying she was "one of the greatest country singers and more," and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff across the United States for a week starting at 6 p.m. that day to mourn Parton.
Parton's funeral is to be held privately with only immediate family in attendance. The bereaved family asked for donations to the Imagination Library in lieu of flowers.