Patty remembers the warmth of music icon Dolly Parton

Country music Dolly Parton has died at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer. She was hospitalized for four days before her passing, which was announced by her family. Though cancer was confirmed as the cause, the specific type was not disclosed.

Patty Spitler, who interviewed Parton multiple times, remembers a woman who made everyone feel instantly at ease. “She wouldn’t let you be nervous,” Patty said. “She was just so warm.”

During one visit to Parton’s Nashville office, Patty was caught offguard when Dolly thanked her, for helping promote her movies. “She’s thanking me?” Patty recalled. “I couldn’t believe it.” Before another interview, the two crossed paths in a hotel hallway, and Parton stopped to speak warmly with Patty’s mother. “She’ll live with us forever,” Patty said.

Parton spent 52 years in Nashville and 60 years in the music business, beginning at age 10 in her hometown. She donated millions of dollars to charitable causes throughout her life and maintained creative control of her work until the end. Her final album, “Pure and Simple” — which she wrote, arranged, and produced herself, was released in a special edition through Cracker Barrel, complete with extra tracks, photographs, and a collectible button.

In 1973, she wrote “I Will Always Love You,” a song later popularized by Whitney Houston in 1992. That song will be performed at her private funeral. Somewhere in her museum, sealed in a box, sits one more unreleased song, scheduled to remain there until the 2040s. Even in her absence, she found a way to leave something more.

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