Dolly Parton once imagined what music might be played at her funeral.

In a 2014 interview published by Entertainment Weekly, Parton said she assumed “I Will Always Love You” would be played when she died. The song, which she had written as a farewell to Porter Wagoner, had acquired a life of its own after Whitney Houston recorded it for the 1992 film The Bodyguard.

Parton had heard the song at Houston’s funeral in 2012. The experience, she said, made the singer’s death feel suddenly real.

“I’m sure they’ll be playing ‘I Will Always Love You’ when I die, just like they did with Whitney Houston,” Parton said. “When they picked her coffin up and started in on that song, I started to cry, and I thought, ‘Oh my Lord.’ That’s when it hit me that she was really gone.”

Dolly Parton attends Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs In Symphony World Premiere at Schermerhorn Symphony Center on March 20, 2025.Jason Kempin/Getty
For her own funeral, though, Parton had another song in mind.

It was “If We Never Meet Again,” an old country-gospel church song about parting from loved ones in this life and meeting again in heaven.

“But there’s a song called ‘If We Never Meet Again,’ ” Parton said at the time. “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 recited another line: “Where the charming roses bloom forever and where separations come no more.”

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The song had a particular place in Parton’s family history. Her father Lee Parton loved it, she said, and the family sang it at his funeral after his death in November 2000.

“That was my daddy’s favorite,” Parton said. “We did sing it at his funeral, and I would like it to be sung at mine.”

Parton died at 80 on Aug. 25, according to an announcement from her nephew, Bryan Seaver. In an Instagram video, Seaver said Parton had asked him years earlier to make the announcement when the time came.

“This video announcement is something Dolly asked of me years ago, before I fully absorbed it as a future reality,” Seaver said.

Inductee Dolly Parton performs onstage during the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on November 05, 2022.Kevin Mazur/Getty
For more than two decades, Seaver had served as Parton’s head of security, following his father, Larry, in the role. In his announcement, he remembered Parton not only as an aunt but as someone whose influence had reached generations of artists.

“Dolly opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent,” he said.

Seaver also described Parton as being reunited with the people she had lost.

“Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed to meet her in the heavens,” he said.

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Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, died in March 2025. In the months that followed, she spoke publicly about grief and the health problems she said she had neglected while caring for him.

In an Aug. 21 interview with PEOPLE, Parton said she had been dealing with health issues but intended to keep working.

“As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” she told PEOPLE.

She added that she still had ambitions she wanted to see through.

Dolly Parton attends the 58th Academy Of Country Music Awards on May 11, 2023 in Frisco, Texas.Theo Wargo/WireImage
“Seriously, though, even though I’m still healin’, I’m still workin’!” Parton said. “You know me — as I’ve often said — I’ve dreamed myself into a corner and I still have so many things I want to achieve, so I’m gonna keep on working as long as I can to see everything come to life.”

That determination was a defining feature of a career that began with her 1967 debut album, Hello, I’m Dolly. Parton went on to record songs including “Jolene,” “9 to 5” and “I Will Always Love You,” building a career that extended into film, television, business and philanthropy.

“I Will Always Love You” became one of its defining songs. Parton wrote it when she was preparing to leave The Porter Wagoner Show, where Wagoner had been her creative partner. After Houston’s recording became a worldwide hit, Parton reflected on what the song’s success had meant to her.

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“It was a worldwide thing. It was in a movie; it was No. 1. I thought, ‘Wow. I wrote that little song,’” she told PEOPLE in 2015. “That’s when I felt my worth as a songwriter. I thought, ‘This is my gift, and I’m going to do the best I can with it.’ ”

Parton had also previously spoken about wanting her work to continue beyond her lifetime.

“I just hope I live long enough to do more things,” she told PEOPLE. “That’s the only thing that worries me, that I may run out of time before I see so many of my dreams come true. I wake up with new dreams all the time. But I put them in a place where they can continue, even after I’m gone.”