By Tony Edike

A life stitched together with music, courage, generosity and the enduring lesson that love is worth more than wealth

Dolly Parton came from a place where there was not much money, but there was music, faith, family and love.

She left that place and became one of the most recognisable women in the world.

Yet, somehow, she never truly left it behind.

Dolly Parton, the country music legend, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, died on 25 August 2026 at the age of 80 after a brief battle with cancer. Her death brought an outpouring of grief from admirers, fellow artists and generations of people whose lives had been touched by her music and generosity.

But perhaps the best way to understand Dolly was not through the rhinestones, the fame, the awards or the fortune.

Perhaps it was through a coat.

A simple coat made by her mother.

In “Coat of Many Colors,” Dolly transformed a childhood memory into one of the most enduring lessons in popular music. Her mother, unable to afford an expensive coat, stitched together scraps of fabric to make one for her daughter. At school, the little girl was mocked because of what she wore.

Dolly Parton wearing her Coat of Many Colours

But Dolly did not remember that coat as a symbol of shame.

She remembered it as a symbol of love.

Her mother had made it for her.

And that distinction says almost everything about Dolly Parton.

The world saw rags.

Dolly saw love.

The world saw poverty.

Dolly saw the richness of having a mother who cared enough to make something with her own hands.

The world saw something to laugh at.

Dolly found a story worth singing.

That was her extraordinary gift: the ability to take the ordinary, the painful and the humble and turn it into something beautiful.

The lesson in the coat

There is a lesson in that song that reaches far beyond country music.

It tells us not to measure people by what they wear, what they own, where they come from or how much money they have.

It teaches us that humiliation does not have to become defeat.

Dolly Parton

It teaches us that our beginnings do not have to determine our destination.

And, perhaps most importantly, it teaches us to recognise the value of the people who loved us when we had nothing to offer them.

Dolly never appeared ashamed of her humble beginnings. Instead, she carried them with her.

She remembered the mountains of Tennessee. She remembered her family. She remembered poverty. She remembered her mother’s hands.

And she turned those memories into songs that travelled around the world.

That is why her success was never simply about becoming famous.

It was about becoming something bigger than fame.

From the mountains to the world

Born into a large, poor family in rural Tennessee, Dolly Parton rose from circumstances that could easily have limited her ambitions. Instead, she became a prolific songwriter whose catalogue stretched into the thousands, a country music pioneer whose songs crossed genre and national boundaries, an actor whose performances became part of popular culture, and a formidable businesswoman.

Songs such as “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You” became cultural landmarks.

But numbers alone cannot explain Dolly Parton’s impact.

She did something more difficult.

She made people feel understood.

She could sing about heartbreak without bitterness, ambition without arrogance and poverty without shame.

She could make millions laugh while reminding them of the struggles that millions quietly endure.

And beneath the wigs, sequins, humour and larger-than-life personality was a woman who understood the dignity of ordinary people.

She gave her success away

Dolly Parton’s generosity was not an accessory to her fame. It was part of her identity.

Dolly …gave her success away

Through the Dollywood Foundation and its Imagination Library, she helped put books into the hands of children around the world. The programme has distributed more than 300 million books, reflecting her lifelong belief in the transforming power of reading and education.

She also supported healthcare, education, disaster relief and medical research, including a $1 million donation toward COVID-19 vaccine research.

In that sense, the little girl in the coat of many colors never disappeared.

She simply grew up and acquired the means to make sure that other children had opportunities she had once lacked.

Dolly knew what it meant to have little.

And when she had much, she remembered.

That may be one of the greatest measures of a person’s character.

A legacy beyond music

Dolly Parton’s death leaves a remarkable space in American culture and in the wider world.

She was a country star, but she belonged to more than country music.

She was an actor, but her influence reached beyond film.

She was a businesswoman, but her greatest enterprise may have been the lives she changed.

She was a philanthropist, but she never seemed to regard generosity as a performance.

She was Dolly.

Funny. Glamorous. Sharp. Warm. Ambitious. Unapologetically herself.

And, beneath it all, deeply connected to the people and places that made her.

Her passing is therefore not simply the death of a celebrity.

It is the end of a remarkable human story.

A story that began in poverty and travelled through music to the whole world.

A story about a woman who refused to be defined by what she did not have.

A story about someone who understood that success is most meaningful when it becomes an opportunity to lift others.

The coat remains

In the end, perhaps Dolly Parton’s most important message was never complicated.

Love your people.

Remember where you came from.

Do not be ashamed of humble beginnings.

Do not measure human worth by possessions.

And when life gives you the opportunity to help someone else, do it.

The coat her mother made from scraps could easily have been remembered as an emblem of poverty.

Instead, Dolly turned it into an emblem of love.

She took something the world might have considered worthless and made it priceless.

Perhaps that is what she did with her entire life.

She took humble beginnings and made them beautiful.

She took pain and made music.

She took success and turned it into service.

She took her story and gave it to the world.

Dolly Parton has left the stage, but the music remains.

The books remain.

The kindness remains.

The lessons remain.

And somewhere, in the hearts of millions who heard her sing about a little girl wearing a coat her mother made for her, the colours remain bright.

A coat of many colors.

A life stitched together with love.

A legacy that will not wear out.

May God grant the soul of Dolly Parton eternal peace.

•  Edike is Publisher/CEO, The Advocate Newspaper Nigeria

Country music legend and Hollywood star, Dolly Parton, has died at the age of 80, her family has announced.

Parton’s nephew, Brian Seaver, announced her death on Tuesday in a video shared on her social media account, describing the moment as one of “absolute pride and great sadness”. The family did not immediately disclose the cause of death.

The Tennessee-born singer, songwriter, actress and philanthropist enjoyed a career spanning more than six decades and became one of the most recognisable figures in American popular culture.

Late Dolly Parton

Known as the “Queen of Country”, Parton sold more than 100 million records worldwide and earned numerous honours, including multiple Grammy Awards. Her enduring hits included “Jolene”, “I Will Always Love You”, “9 to 5” and “Coat of Many Colors”.

Her death came after a period of health challenges. In May, Parton announced the cancellation of a Las Vegas performance, revealing that she had been undergoing treatment for kidney stones and was also dealing with problems affecting her immune and digestive systems.

Just days before her death, Parton had indicated that she was still determined to work despite acknowledging that she had slowed down following the death of her husband, Carl Dean, in March 2025.

“Even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!” she said, insisting that she still had many things she wanted to accomplish.

Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children in a poor family. She grew up in the Appalachian region, where her mother’s love for traditional music helped nurture her passion for singing and songwriting.

She began performing as a child and moved to Nashville shortly after graduating from high school in 1964. Her songwriting talent soon earned her recognition, before she established herself as a major recording artiste.

Parton’s breakthrough included “Jolene”, which became one of her signature songs. Her composition “I Will Always Love You” later became a global hit for Whitney Houston after the singer recorded it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard.

Beyond music, Parton built a successful acting career, starring in films including 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. She also became a prominent businesswoman through Dollywood, the theme park she established in Tennessee in 1986.

Her influence extended well beyond entertainment. Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation and its Imagination Library initiative, which provides free books to children, making childhood literacy one of the major causes associated with her name.

She also donated $1 million to coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University in 2020, funding that contributed to research that later helped in the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Parton’s personal life also attracted public interest. She married Carl Dean in 1966, and the couple remained together for nearly six decades until his death in 2025. They had no children.

Despite her global fame, Parton remained closely connected to her Tennessee roots and used her success to support communities, education, healthcare and other charitable causes.

Her death brings to an end the life of an entertainer whose influence crossed generations, musical genres and national boundaries, leaving behind a vast catalogue of songs and a philanthropic legacy that extended far beyond country music.

Nigerian streamer, Peller has dragged his parents for attending his wedding ceremony with their partners.

Peller had his white wedding, which was attended by many dignitaries over the weekend.

Peller’s parents, who have separated from each other, attended the ceremony with their respective partners.

Expressing his frustration over the development, the TikTok streamer, in a video on Wednesday, revealed that he had confronted his parents for turning his wedding into a party despite his earlier warning.

“I’m tired, I’m tired of all these things. I changed it for them oo, no be small.

“Because I told them to invite just a few people, but my mummy dey carry her own boyfriend come, my daddy carry his own girlfriend come.

“All of them just turned my wedding to party. Polygamy is very hard, I’m from a polygamous family”, he said. (sic)