Dolly Parton’s Sister Reveals Late Country Icon Last Request, Reason Why She Thinks Singer Got Sick: ‘She Was Definitely Prepared’
Categoria: Musica
Stella Parton sat down with Gayle King to talk about Dolly's final days and her legacy.
Por Billboard | 10/09/2026
Dolly Parton had a simple final request for her younger sister Stella: keep me in your prayers. Singer/songwriter Stella, 77, sat down with CBS Mornings ‘ Gayle King this week to reminisce about her famous older sibling and talk about their final conversations before Dolly’s death at 80 on Aug. 25 following what her spokesperson said was a “brief battle with cancer.” “That’s the last thing Dolly asked me for, was prayer,” said Stella. While King tried to suss out how Parton felt about another one of her sisters, younger sibling Freida, raising alarms among the singer’s fans in October of last year when she asked for prayers for the Grammy-winning country superstar before the world found out she was sick, Stella said that was not her business to tell. “I think Dolly got on to Freida about that … I don’t know, because I haven’t asked Freida because it was very touchy about all that,” Stella said, suggesting that her two sisters had a chat about it and that Dolly told Freida to “pipe it down.” Stella, who said Freida’s comments — which she later apologized for after fearing she’d caused alarm among Dolly’s millions of fans — came from a place of worry. And, as it turns out, those calls for prayer were later part of Dolly’s last request to Stella, the family of 12’s third-oldest sister behind the country legend. King noted that the official statement about Parton’s death said she died after a “brief battle with cancer,” asking Stella why the family decided not to share any more specifics. “That was her business,” said Stella, noting Parton did not specifically ask them to withhold the details. “But she didn’t tell us that we could say it. So out of respect for her, I can talk about my love for her and describe who she is to me, but it’s not my business to tell her business.” While Stella said Parton’s media-shy late husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean — who died on March 3 at 82 — was supportive of her career, he preferred that they keep their romance and life together, private. “He would rather her be at the house with her hair up in a ponytail and barefooted, cookin’ in the kitchen and just, you know, messin’ around the house. That’s, I think, that’s what he would have preferred,” Stella told King. And though they rarely appeared in public together, their love was undeniable and deep, prompting King to wonder if Parton’s rapid demise after Dean’s passing might have been a case of death-by-heartbreak. “I think she was very sad, but I don’t think that’s why she got sick,” said Stella. “I think she worked too hard and didn’t maybe take as good a care of herself as she should have.” King was reminded that at one point Parton said she spent so much time taking care of Dean she may have