Dolly Parton’s Cousin Says Singer Even Kept Health Issues From Family: ‘She Always Wanted to Keep Everybody Being Positive Around Her’
Categoria: Musica
Parton family historian Richie Owens also revealed that last week's reported "funeral" was actually a simple "burial" to avoid spending money that could go to charity.
Por Billboard | 03/09/2026
To the very end of her life, Dolly Parton was determined to be a source of light in the world, even if it meant eschewing a traditional funeral and sharing details about her health struggles with her fans, or even her family. Parton’s first cousin, occasional musical collaborator and the family’s archivist, Richie Owens, told the Today Show on Thursday (Sept. 3) that the beloved country icon who died on Aug. 25 at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer kept even her kin in the dark about her failing health, believing that projecting an upbeat, positive mood for everyone around was the best option. Related Dollywood to Celebrate Dolly Parton With New Installations & Experiences: ‘We Will Carry Her Dreams Forward’ Dolly Parton’s Niece Explains Why Country Legend Wanted to Keep Cancer Diagnosis Secret: ‘She Never Wanted to Worry Anybody’ Did We Expect Dolly Parton’s Posthumous Chart Takeover? “She of course posted herself that she had been going through health problems, but no one really knew what a lot of that was, including myself,” Owens said of Parton’s periodic health updates over the last year of her life in which she alluded to some struggles, but always pivoted to focusing on hope and the future. “She always kept things private because she always wanted to keep everybody being positive around her and put that out there in the world. Just, ‘Don’t worry about me, I’m going to be fine.’ Just show the love.” And, in keeping with Parton’s lifetime of charitable good works , Owens clarified that when the singer was laid to rest last Friday (Aug. 28) in a private ceremony in Nashville and buried alongside her late husband of 59 years, Carl Dean, who died at 82 last year, she preferred to keep it simple and avoid spending money that could otherwise go to those in need. “She wanted to keep it very quiet,” Owens told Today . “The word keeps getting brought up, ‘funeral,’ and I don’t believe that was really the case in this situation. It was a burial, to be buried beside her husband.” Owens described the burial as being “very small” and “very, very quickly done,” with just a few close family members on hand. “Not for any bad reasons whatsoever, it’s just that’s what she wanted. She wanted to keep it very, very private,” he said, noting that Parton would prefer the money be spent helping others. “That’s exactly what she said … when that happens to her, when she passes, she would much rather see people take that $50 you should spend on flowers and give it to her Imagination Library ,” he said of the singer’s long-running reading charity, which has distributed more than 350 million books to children around the world since 1995. “She’s said that many, many times. She really cared about her charities.”