Dolly Parton’s sister Stella has shared why details around the Queen of Country’s cancer have been kept private.
The “Jolene” hitmaker died August 25, aged 80, after a “brief battle with cancer,” her publicist said at the time. The type of cancer has not ben disclosed.
When Gayle King asked why in an interview that aired on CBS Mornings, Stella said: “Well, that was her business.”
She added that while Dolly never explicitly asked her family to keep her diagnosis private, “she didn’t tell us that we could say it.”
“So out of respect for her … it’s not my business to tell her business.”
Stella added that the last thing Dolly asked her for was prayer.
Asked what she misses most about her sister, Stella said: “Her optimism.”
“I don’t miss her struggling in pain,” she continued, adding, “I know she was at peace.”
“She knew where she was going. She wasn’t going anywhere bad,” Stella said of her sister. “She was definitely prepared.”
Just days before her death, People published an interview with Dolly in which she said she had recently been through some “hard times with my health” but was keeping busy.
“I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” she said, referring to Dean who died in March 2025 at age 82. “Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’.”
Dolly’s death was announced by her nephew, Bryan Seaver, in an Instagram video.
She was laid to rest in a private funeral August 28, with close family in attendance, according to her niece, Lainey Parton.
Dolly had made it clear before her death that she wanted a “small, private service” for immediate family, the singer’s team shared in a statement.
That service was held at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville. She was buried next to Carl Dean, her husband of 60 years, who died in March 2025.
Aside from wanting a small service, Dolly did reveal one major detail about her funeral arrangements to fans more than a decade before her death.
“There’s a song called ‘If We Never Meet Again.’ It’s an old country-gospel church song that talks about if we never meet again this side of heaven, I will meet you on that beautiful shore,” she told Entertainment Weekly in a 2014 interview.
“‘Where the charming roses bloom forever and where separations come no more.’ That was my daddy’s favorite. We did sing it at his funeral, and I would like it to be sung at mine.”
It is unclear if there was a live rendition of the song at her funeral; however, Parton has duetted with her goddaughter, pop star Miley Cyrus, on a number of occasions in the past.
