Dolly Parton’s sister Stella has revealed the last request the country music legend made before her death, saying the singer asked for prayer in her final days.
“That’s the last thing Dolly asked me for, was prayer,” Stella Parton said during a recent interview with “CBS Mornings.”
Dolly Parton died Aug. 25 at age 80 following what her family has described as a “brief battle with cancer.” The specific type of cancer has not been disclosed, and Stella said the family intends to keep it that way “out of respect for her,” noting that Dolly never gave them permission to share those details.
“It’s not my business to tell her business,” Stella said, adding that she is comfortable speaking about her love for her sister but not about her medical history.
Concerns about Dolly Parton’s health first surfaced in September 2025, when she postponed a series of Las Vegas concerts, telling fans in an online post that her doctors had told her she needed “a few procedures.” Shortly afterward, another sister, Freida, asked fans to pray for Dolly, saying she “hasn’t been feeling her best lately.”
According to Stella, Dolly was not pleased with that public appeal. “I’m pretty sure Dolly said, ‘You’re going to, you know, pipe it down,’ because that was the first time people thought ‘Oh,'” Stella recalled. She said Dolly understood Freida was upset but didn’t want her private situation shared publicly.
Stella said her sister chose to keep her diagnosis private because she “could not bear negative things” and did not want fans worrying about her.
Life after losing Carl Dean
Dolly Parton’s death came just over a year after the death of her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in March 2025 at age 82. Some observers have suggested Dolly died of a broken heart, but Stella disagrees.
“I think she was very sad, but I don’t think that’s why she got sick,” Stella said. “I think she worked too hard and didn’t maybe take as good a care of herself as she should have.” She recalled Dolly once saying, “I spent a lot of time caring for Carl that maybe I neglected myself.”
Stella said watching Dean’s decline before his death “broke her heart” to see, and she believes Dolly’s relentless work pace ultimately took a toll on her health. She described the couple’s marriage as “very unique and very deep and loyal,” crediting Dean for supporting Dolly’s career even though, according to Stella, he had little interest in her fame and would have preferred her at home “with her hair up in a ponytail and barefooted cooking in the kitchen.”
Stella said even close family rarely saw Dolly without her trademark glamorous look once she became a star. “Not after she got to be Dolly Parton. No. She would sleep in her makeup when she’d come spend the night with me,” Stella said. “I knew what she looked like. She looked like me without her makeup.”
A peaceful ending
Stella also praised her sister as a shrewd businesswoman who kept her political opinions private throughout her career so that, in Stella’s words, “she would never have offended anyone.”
Despite the illness, Stella said she believes Dolly was at peace at the end. “She knew where she was going,” Stella said. “She wasn’t going anywhere bad. She was going to be with mom and daddy. She was prepared. Yeah, she was definitely prepared.”
Asked how she hopes her sister will be remembered, Stella described her as “very sweet, kind, loving, brilliant and so talented,” adding that Dolly’s creative ambition was limitless. “I want young people, young girls and boys that may think they have no opportunity to dream. Coming from our situation, she gave us permission to dream that way.”
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