Dolly Parton, the nation music legend whose remaining enterprise ventures included a Tennessee journey heart aimed toward truck drivers and freeway vacationers, died Tuesday at age 80.
Parton died peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee, in keeping with her publicist. A reason for dying was not disclosed, in keeping with the Related Press.
Her dying comes nearly precisely two months after Parton made a shock look June 24 on the grand opening of Dolly’s Tennessean Journey Cease in Cornersville, Tennessee, alongside Interstate 65.
The looks is believed to have been one in every of Parton’s final public appearances.
Parton greeted a whole lot of followers, vacationers and neighborhood members on the opening and helped reduce the ribbon with rhinestone-covered scissors.
“Properly, the doorways are open and I couldn’t be prouder,” Parton mentioned on the opening. “Whether or not you might be hauling masses, hauling the household, or simply passing by way of, we constructed this place for you.”
The journey heart, positioned at Exit 22 off I-65 about an hour south of Nashville, represented Parton’s entry into an trade intently related to the street and trucking — one thing she mentioned was a pure extension of many years spent touring the nation.
“I’ve spent the majority of my life on the street, and extra particularly on a bus,” Parton mentioned when the enterprise was introduced in March. “I consider we’ll fill a void on the market on the highways, all whereas bringing the guts and soul of Tennessee.”
Associated: Dolly Parton launches truck cease enterprise
Dolly’s Tennessean Journey Cease was created by way of a partnership involving Parton, Sachs Capital Group Chairman and CEO Gregory H. Sachs and Danny Nozell, founder and CEO of CTK Enterprises and Parton’s longtime supervisor.
The unique Tennessean Journey Cease was rebranded and expanded right into a roadside vacation spot designed for skilled drivers, households and vacationers. The power consists of truck parking, gasoline, showers and laundry services, together with eating places, retail, a espresso store, canine park, EV charging stations, occasion house and different facilities.
The Cornersville location was meant to be solely the start.
When the partnership was introduced, the businesses mentioned the flagship location would function a proof of idea for added Dolly’s Tennessean Journey Stops throughout Tennessee and doubtlessly elsewhere within the U.S.
The venture additionally mirrored Parton’s longstanding ties to Tennessee and her status as each an entertainer and entrepreneur.
Born right into a poor household within the Tennessee mountains, Parton grew to become one of the recognizable performers in American music, writing a whole lot of songs together with “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colours,” “I Will All the time Love You,” and “Islands within the Stream,” a duet with Kenny Rogers.
Certainly one of Parton’s largest hits is the title music from “9 to five,” the 1980 comedy starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She additionally had starring film roles in “The Finest Little Whorehouse In Texas” and “Metal Magnolias.”
Her recordings offered greater than 100 million copies worldwide and collected greater than 1 billion on-line streams.
Parton additionally wrote books and memoirs, was inducted into the Nation Music Corridor of Fame and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy. She was chosen for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences in 2025.
With 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, Parton is the third-most nominated girl in Grammy historical past, solely behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.
Her enterprise empire prolonged nicely past music.
Parton helped flip Dollywood in East Tennessee into a significant tourism and financial engine for Appalachia. She additionally established the Dollywood Basis and Creativeness Library, which distributes free books to kids.
The journey cease grew to become one of many remaining additions to that enterprise legacy — and one immediately tied to the highways Parton traveled all through her profession.
On the Cornersville opening, she described the idea as a spot the place folks touring for work or pleasure may discover “good meals, actual relaxation, a little bit music, and people who find themselves genuinely glad you stopped in.”
“That’s what the street has at all times deserved,” Parton mentioned, “and that’s what you will discover right here.”
Why it issues: Parton’s dying comes simply two months after she personally opened a journey heart designed partly for skilled truck drivers, leaving the deliberate enlargement of Dolly’s Tennessean Journey Cease as one of many remaining chapters of her decades-long enterprise profession.
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