Dolly Parton Laid to Rest in Nashville Private Funeral

Views 4 Published by August 31, 2026

Country music icon Dolly Parton, who died August 25 at age 80, was buried Friday in a private family ceremony at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville alongside her husband Carl Dean.

Dolly Parton was laid to rest in a private family funeral in Nashville on Friday, August 28. The singer was buried next to her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, who died in 2025 at age 82.

According to her nephew Brian Seaver, Parton had made a special request for her burial. “Dolly was a farmer, just like her daddy,” Seaver said in a video. “He farmed the soil. She farmed songs and happiness. Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.”

In a 2014 interview, Parton specified that the gospel hymn “If We Never Meet Again”—her father’s favorite, performed at his funeral—should be played at her own service, rather than “I Will Always Love You,” the song she wrote that became a number one hit for Whitney Houston. “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,” Parton said at the time.

Parton and Dean are interred in a mausoleum featuring a plaque with her name, an engraved image of her childhood home in Sevier County, Tennessee, and the couple’s marriage date with intertwined wedding bands, according to People.

The Grand Ole Opry, which inducted Parton in 1969, honored her on Saturday, August 29, with performances by Carly Pearce, Jelly Roll, Kathy Mattea, Ketch Secor, Molly Tuttle, Channing Wilson, and Parton’s niece Jada Star. Parton’s team invited fans to participate in tributes via social media or donations to her Imagination Library nonprofit.