Dolly Parton, beloved US country music icon, dies at 80

Key Facts

• Fact 1: Dolly Parton, a United States country music icon who won the adoration of fans around the world with her compelling songwriting and vibrant personality, has died at the age of 80.
• Fact 2: Aretha Franklin given royal farewell in Detroit Walid Khalidi, historian of the Palestinian cause, dies aged 100 Music world in mourning for Whitney Houston “Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,” her nephew Bryan Seaver said in a video posted on Parton’s Instagram account.
• Fact 3: Dolly Parton poses for a photo at her office in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 11, 2005 [John Russell/AP]Throughout her career, Parton wrote hundreds of songs, including classics such as “Jolene”, “9 to 5”, and Coat of Many Colours”, and won a degree of acclaim and public affection that few artists in the modern era have been able to match.
• Fact 4: She gave her first musical performances in church, where her grandfather was a preacher, and appeared at the age of 13 at the storied country music venue the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where she was introduced by Johnny Cash as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee”.