Dolly Parton’s Family Speaks Out After Her Death at 80

The love Dolly Parton’s family feels for her is like a butterfly. 

And despite their heartache after the beloved singer’s death at age 80, they will continue to remember her, as soft and gentle as a sigh. 

“Sadness lies with us, not with Dolly,” her nephew Bryan Seaver said in the Aug. 25 video announcing her passing. “Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus.”

There, Seaver stressed, Parton was “surely met” by her late husband Carl Thomas Dean, as well as her parents and “countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens.”

Parton’s nephew—who also acted as her head of security after his father retired from the position—stressed the impact the “Jolene” singer had, both on his family and far beyond. 

“Dolly opened doors not just for me, but for her entire family to reach the potential we didn’t even know was possible,” Seaver added. “Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians, and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent.”