00:00This is sad news from Hollywood. Country music superstar Dolly Parton has died at the age of 80.
00:04Over the course of her career, Dolly won 11 Grammys, three Emmys, and recorded a whopping 48 studio albums.
00:10She sold an incredible 100 million records worldwide.
00:13Her family revealed the news online via a video statement paying tributes to the Queen of Country Music.
00:19Take a listen to this.
00:21Hey everyone, my name is Brian Seaver, son of Cassie Parton,
00:25and I am representing the Parton and Owens family today, announcing the passing of my Aunt Dolly, Rebecca Parton Dean.
00:32Sister, sis, Aunt Granny to one generation, and Gigi to the next.
00:37This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality.
00:43As her head of security for more than two decades, a role my father Larry held before me,
00:48I have imagined the heaviness of this moment, but haven't truly felt it until now.
00:53This really has caught me by surprise. Just before we came on air, we got the news of this.
00:57And it really is truly a day to remember for all the wrong reasons.
01:02President Trump has announced that U.S. flags all over the country will be flown at half-mast.
01:07That in itself is a testament, I guess, to just how iconic this lady was.
01:12Michael, there are not many entertainers who managed to remain this popular or who managed to gain that much popularity.
01:17She spans across so many generations and, I guess, bridge that gap in musical genres.
01:22What is it about Dolly Parton you think that connected the world?
01:26She was such a larger-than-life character, and I say that respectfully.
01:32I am of an age where I can remember seeing Dolly Parton on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in
01:37the 70s.
01:38This is a woman from the South, proudly from the South, who was not the traditional reserved character from the
01:45South,
01:45especially the role that a woman should play.
01:48She was incredibly talented.
01:50She wrote more than 3, wrote, not sang, wrote more than 3,000 songs.
01:56She was also an actress and, as we know, an incredibly successful businesswoman.
02:02All we have to do is look at Dollywood and how incredibly popular that is.
02:08She also was doing fantastic work in the world of philanthropy.
02:14She was the one who created this initiative where she gave away more than 3 million books to children.
02:25She was everything that was good about America at a time when it was so easy to fall in love
02:34with some of the personalities.
02:36And because the personalities didn't necessarily seem as though they were overly PR'd, especially with Dolly Parton,
02:44she just came across, you know, what works so well today on social media is authenticity.
02:50And I think everyone would argue, would believe that Dolly was her authentic self.
02:57And to be able to do it for more than 50 years is an incredible achievement.
03:03And she, 80 isn't even that old, but she certainly has been successful and trying to make so many people
03:13around the world fans of country music.
03:16And not too many country singers have had that impact on the global stage.
Comments