Pop star Dolly Parton (80), the DAEMO Engineering of American country music, died on the 25th in Nashville, Tennessee, after a battle with cancer. As the world mourns Parton's death, the scientific community's tributes are particularly notable. That's because Parton left a major mark on science.
The international journal Nature said on the 26th that scientists around the world paid tribute to Parton. World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on the social media platform X that "today is a sad day as we remember an outstanding artist, a true champion of kindness, and an ambassador of science and public health."
Gaurav Kansagara, a cell biologist at the Institute for Stem Cell Science and Regenerative Medicine in Bengaluru, India, said on the social media platform Bluesky, "Few celebrities have used their influence to support science in such a meaningful way."
◇Contribution to mRNA COVID vaccines
Nature said Dolly Parton made major contributions to science in various ways. First, Parton was a benefactor who donated large sums to scientific research. In Mar. 2020, as COVID-19 was raging, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), establishing the "Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund."
The Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund supported key early stages of research into the then-experimental messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines, leading to biotech corporations Moderna's vaccine development. A phase 1 clinical trial report of the Moderna vaccine published in Jul. 2020 in the international journal the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said the study was supported by the fund. Nature said at least 37 papers mentioned support from the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund.
When COVID-19 vaccines were developed, Dolly Parton also personally encouraged vaccinations. In Mar. 2021, Parton publicly showed herself getting a shot at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to urge people to get vaccinated. She joked, "I'm old enough to get it, and smart enough to get it," then rewrote the lyrics to her hit song "Jolene" to add, "Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, please don't hesitate."
William Shaffner, a preventive medicine researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said of Parton making her vaccination public, "She convinced many that getting vaccinated was the best choice for themselves and their families," adding, "Dolly Parton built a link between public health and the general public."
◇Fighting AIDS and supporting hospitals
Parton had already engaged in various public health charitable activities before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1994, she contributed a remake of her song "You Gotta Be My Baby" to a charity album created to raise funds to fight AIDS.
Hospitals bearing Parton's name were also established. In Sevier County, Tennessee, her hometown, she held a charity concert for LeConte Medical Center and raised $500,000. In 2010, the hospital established the "Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services." In Feb. 2026, East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee, changed its name to the "Dolly Parton Children's Hospital" after Parton's donation. Parton also donated $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University.
◇A name left on the world's first cloned animal
Parton's name was also dedicated to the world's first cloned animal: Dolly the cloned sheep, which the Roslin Institute in the United Kingdom released in Nature in Feb. 1997.
Ian Wilmut (1944–2023) and Keith Campbell (1954–2012) harvested a nucleus containing genes from a fully developed somatic cell of a sheep and combined it with the egg of another sheep to create a cloned embryo. The egg's nucleus had already been removed. This was cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer. The cloned embryo was implanted in a surrogate mother's uterus.
Dolly the cloned sheep was given Parton's name because the somatic cell used for the nucleus came from mammary gland tissue in the breast. Parton was famous for her voluptuous figure. After the Nature paper was published, Wilmut said, "Dolly Parton said she was honoured that we named our 'child' (meaning the cloned sheep) after her, and added that 'there's no such thing as baaaaad publicity.'"
In a 2024 interview with the Guardian, Parton also said she was not offended that the cloned sheep was named after her body and that she was honored by the tribute. But she said she did not want to be cloned. "There are already plenty of people who look like Dolly, and plenty of drag queens who imitate Dolly," Parton said.
◇A campaign to mail books to children
Parton was born in 1946 as the fourth of 12 children in a rural town in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Her father was a poor sharecropper who could not read or write. She wanted to tell children the story of how she did not feel ashamed of poverty and achieved her dreams through her own strength.
In 1995, she launched the "Dolly Parton Imagination Library." The program, through public-private cooperation, mails free books every month to children from birth to age 5. Now, 1 in 6 children under age 5 in the United States receives books through this library.
Illustrator Ryan Dunlavey posted a letter that Parton sent to Imagination Library "graduates" on Bluesky. Parton said this:
"There's no limit to what you can do. There's no limit to how far you can go. Just remember the lessons my family taught me. Dream big, learn everything you can, and cherish everyone who cares about you."
References
Nature (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-02676-1
NEJM (2020), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483
Nature (2016), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/534604a
Nature (1997), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/385810a