“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,” Taylor Swift said tonight of her friend Dolly Parton. The beloved country music legend died Tuesday at the age of 80, following a “brief battle with cancer,” according to her reps.
“But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one,” the Life of a Showgirl superstar said of multi-Grammy winner, Oscar nominee and Dollywood founder.
Swift has long be an open admirer of the trailblazing Parton. The appreciation was mutual.
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As recently as earlyJuly, Parton put out a video thank you to Swift and then soon-to-be hubby Travis Kelce for including a $2 million donation to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. On the eve of their media frenzied MSG wedding, which Parton was invited to but did not attend, Swift and the NFL vet gave millions to 20 charities across the nation.
Today, as America and the world lamented the death of the ‘Jolene’ performer, 9 To 5 actor, producer, playwright, philanthropist, and author, Swift offered personal words of grief and joy.
The ‘Cruel Summer’ singer said of Tennessee native Parton: “She was truly the gift that kept on giving. Dolly gave us someone to look up to while encouraging us to be who we are as individuals. Somehow she was able to give us her lessons about the world gently and honestly, simultaneously, and oftentimes hilariously. She managed to give the world the ultimate mystery and fantasy in some corners of her life, but to give full transparency in the ways that counted. Somehow she was true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the softest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a backbone of steel to defend her own self worth as an artist.
Along with her other fans, I am so grateful for all of it. For the melodies and lyrics she wrote that thawed even the coldest hearts. For the millions of books she provided children all over the world so that they might fall in love with stories the way she did. For the tightropes she walked so that young girls like me could grow up dreaming of joining the circus too.
Dolly, I’ll think of you each step of the way.”
Amen.
