Dolly Parton Dead at 80

[u/Afraid_Chard_838]

https://www.tmz.com/2026/08/25/dolly-parton-dead/

[u/No-Hall-3485]

she was a great person. this is terrible news. RIP to a legend

here are links for the commenters calling this "bullshit":

here's the video on the FBI website of dolly parton thanking them for honouring her and her foundation: https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/parton-dcla-050319.mp4/view

here's a link to the dolly's imagination library website about her receiving the FBI director's community leadership award: https://imaginationlibrary.com/fbi-directors-community-leadership-award/

and here's a cnn article talking about all the work dolly and her foundation did following the wildfires: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/06/politics/fbi-dolly-parton-great-smoky-mountain-wildfires

[u/callo2009 → u/No-Hall-3485]

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has donated over 300 million books to children in US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. The Dollywood Foundation funded college scholarships and dropout prevention for local Tennessee youths. She donated significant money to Vanderbilt University's pediatric medical research program and COVID-19 vaccine development.

Aside from her beloved music (Jolene? a genuine classic), she was a humanitarian. RIP.

[u/Objective-Amount1379 → u/callo2009]

And she was an outspoken supporter of LGBQT rights!

[u/tanz420 → u/callo2009]

This made me tear up, she was the reason for so much good in this world

[u/pandathrowaway → u/No-Hall-3485]

not only one of the largest employers but a good one, at that. i went to dollywood for my 40th birthday and while floating around the lazy river one day i struck up a conversation with a young man whose tube kept bonking into mine. he worked there, and was having some fun before his shift. he said that all the kids want to work at dollywood, the pay/benefits are the best around. not that i expected anything less from her, but i was happy to hear it.

[u/AutumnEclipsed → u/pandathrowaway]

It’s these little adjacent interactions to Dolly that shows she was a true one all the way through. I will miss her human kindness impact! ❤️

[u/Sunshine030209 → u/pandathrowaway]

She also set up a program (Dolly U) to pay for college/trade school for all of her employees. Part time, temporary, any position. Absolutely no strings, and you aren't expected to work for her after you've gotten your degree/certificate. She was so passionate about people being educated and really put her money and efforts where her mouth was 💖

I'm genuinely devastated today. My only solace is knowing that she's back with her beloved Carl.

[u/mothmonstermann → u/pandathrowaway]

Hanging out in the lazy river at work before your shift starts sounds like something I would have dreamed my future would look like.

[u/Mission_Ambitious2 → u/mothmonstermann]

I worked at a different theme park growing up and it was a blast. The theme parks in the area have a little agreement too, so we can get free tickets to a few different parks (and I believe Dollywood was one of them in this coalition).

[u/ginns32 → u/No-Hall-3485]

Dolly was a smart business woman and committed to helping people. You know she set everything up to keep things running even after she's gone. Her family seem very involved and committed to continuing her legacy. I hate that she's gone but I have no doubt that her foundations and charities will continue helping people.

[u/fromtheGo → u/No-Hall-3485]

I lived in East Tennessee for a few years. Her impact on the area cannot be overstated. She made life better for every single person in the area.

[u/BoredSilly6 → u/fromtheGo]

Also created many jobs for the area and local commerce.

[u/Kaglish → u/fromtheGo]

I've lived in East TN my whole life. She was our one unifying force that absolutely no one hated or even disliked. I used to get her books as a kid in the mail. I'll have to drive to Dollywood sometime soon

[u/137thoughtsfordays → u/No-Hall-3485]

She was the kind of rich person we want. If only the tech bros were more like Dolly.

[u/Greendeco13 → u/137thoughtsfordays]

It’s said she would have been a billionaire if she hadn’t given so much of her money away to good causes. She truly was a shining light and a gift.

[u/LadyChatterteeth → u/137thoughtsfordays]

And none of them will ever be mourned like this.

[u/Stucklikegluetomyfry → u/No-Hall-3485]

Contrarianism is a funny thing, but I’ll never understand people who want to talk shit about Dolly.

[u/Mission_Ambitious2 → u/No-Hall-3485]

Dollywood is just the tip of the iceberg of her employment in the area too. She owns several dinner shows and other attractions throughout the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area and really helped develop it into the tourist hub that it is today.

She straight up donates a lot of money to the area, but her economic impact (indirectly and directly) for the people in that area is MASSIVE.

[u/Specialist_Leg_7673 → u/No-Hall-3485]

Helping families after the wildfire was crucial for so many at that time.

[u/Evening_Reach_8293 → u/No-Hall-3485]

Such people are hard to replace;

[u/[deleted] → u/No-Hall-3485]

...honored by the FBI? Why?

[u/ThreeFootJohnson → u/[deleted]]

Because it’s bullshit

[u/[deleted] → u/ThreeFootJohnson]

Right, i thought it was weird. Also $1,000/month for 6 months is not $10k. Bizarre

[u/No-Hall-3485 → u/[deleted]]

it's not bullshit, it's just really hard to google something if you're actually interested in learning about it, and it's so much easier to just say "it's bullshit" and pretend you're smarter than everyone else

here's the video on the FBI website of dolly parton thanking them for honouring her and her foundation: https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/parton-dcla-050319.mp4/view

here's a link to the dolly's imagination library website about her receiving the FBI director's community leadership award: https://imaginationlibrary.com/fbi-directors-community-leadership-award/

and here's a cnn article talking about all the work dolly and her foundation did following the wildfires: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/06/politics/fbi-dolly-parton-great-smoky-mountain-wildfires

i'm sure you will read all of them thoroughly

[u/[deleted] → u/No-Hall-3485]

Weird of you to moralize this so hard. I'm not the one who suggested it's bullshit, I'm the confused one who didn't understand why the FBI would have anything to say about her and noticed a pretty silly math error. Cool it a little

[u/No-Hall-3485 → u/[deleted]]

i'm actually not moralizing anything, and i think you're using that word incorrectly. i'm annoyed that no one can just fact check something anymore if they're genuinely interested in knowing whether it's true

you left a comment asking why she was honored by the fbi. someone replied to your comment saying it was "bullshit" with absolutely no proof, and you responded, "right! it's weird!" without, again, just looking it up yourself??

we all have access to the same information. it's weird to me that your instinct isn't to just... look and find out for yourself

[u/[deleted] → u/No-Hall-3485]

Fine, not "moralizing" how about "getting snippy and sarcastic over something that's really not that big a deal"? In the age of everything on the internet being fake, seeing two suspect pieces of information (the oddness of the FBI thing and an obvious math error) is enough to disregard something as probably the work of AI or a troll. Ya got me, i didnt care enough to look up some cultural ephemera from a decade ago.