Dolly Parton, Who Wrote More Than 3,000 Songs, Has Died at 80

Dolly Parton wrote more than 3,000 songs in her life. She was an American country singer and songwriter. On 25 August, her family said she died at the age of 80. They did not give a cause of death.

She was born in 1946 in Tennessee. She was the fourth of 12 children in a poor farm family. She sang in church from the age of six. When she was 13, she sang at the Grand Ole Opry, a famous stage in Nashville. After high school, she moved to Nashville to make music.

Many of her songs came from her own life. "Coat of Many Colors" was about a coat that her mother made for her. "Jolene" became a hit in the 1970s. In 1980, she acted in the movie "9 to 5" and wrote its title song. In 1992, Whitney Houston sang Parton's song "I Will Always Love You." It became one of the best-selling songs sung by a woman.

Parton was also good at business. She opened the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in 1986. She started the Imagination Library, which now sends free books to millions of children every year. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she gave $1 million to help pay for scientific work that helped create the Moderna vaccine. Her family asked people to give money to the Imagination Library instead of flowers.