Dolly Parton dies at 80, two months after opening Tennessee truck stop

Dolly Parton, the country music legend whose final business ventures included a Tennessee travel center aimed at truck drivers and highway travelers, died Tuesday at age 80. Parton died peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee, according to her publicist. A cause of death was not disclosed, according to the Associated Press.

Her death comes almost exactly two months after Parton made a surprise appearance June 24 at the grand opening of Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop in Cornersville, Tennessee, along Interstate 65. The appearance is believed to have been one of Parton’s last public appearances.

Parton greeted hundreds of fans, travelers and community members at the opening and helped cut the ribbon with rhinestone-covered scissors. “Well, the doors are open and I could not be prouder,” Parton said at the opening. “Whether you are hauling loads, hauling the family, or just passing through, we built this place for you.”

The travel center, located at Exit 22 off I-65 about an hour south of Nashville, represented Parton’s entry into an industry closely connected to the road and trucking — something she said was a natural extension of decades spent touring the country.

“I have spent the bulk of my life on the road, and more specifically on a bus,” Parton said when the venture was announced in March. “I believe we will fill a void out there on the highways, all while bringing the heart and soul of Tennessee.”

Related: Dolly Parton launches truck stop venture Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop opened in June in Cornersville, Tennessee, targeting both family roadtrippers and long-haul truck drivers. (Photo: Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop) Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop was created through 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 manager. The original Tennessean Travel Stop was rebranded and expanded into a roadside destination designed for professional drivers, families and tourists.

The facility includes truck parking, fuel, showers and laundry facilities, along with restaurants, retail, a coffee shop, dog park, EV charging stations, event space and other amenities. The Cornersville location was intended to be only the beginning.

When the partnership was announced, the companies said the flagship location would serve as a proof of concept for additional Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stops across Tennessee and potentially elsewhere in the U. S. The project also reflected Parton’s longstanding ties to Tennessee and her reputation as both an entertainer and entrepreneur.

Born into a poor family in the Tennessee mountains, Parton became one of the most recognizable performers in American music, writing hundreds of songs including “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You,” and “Islands in the Stream,” a duet with Kenny Rogers.

One of Parton’s biggest hits is the title song from “9 to 5,” the 1980 comedy starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She also had starring movie roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” and “Steel Magnolias.” Her recordings sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and accumulated more than 1 billion online streams.

Parton also wrote books and memoirs, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy. She was selected for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2025.

With 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, Parton is the third-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. Her business empire extended well beyond music. Parton helped turn Dollywood in East Tennessee into a major tourism and economic engine for Appalachia.

She also established the Dollywood Foundation and Imagination Library, which distributes free books to children. The travel stop became one of the final additions to that business legacy — and one directly tied to the highways Parton traveled throughout her career.

At the Cornersville opening, she described the concept as a place where people traveling for work or pleasure could find “good food, real rest, a little music, and people who are genuinely glad you stopped in.” “That’s what the road has always deserved,” Parton said, “and that is what you will find here.”

Why it matters: Parton’s death comes just two months after she personally opened a travel center designed in part for professional truck drivers, leaving the planned expansion of Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop as one of the final chapters of her decades-long business career.

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