Dolly Parton's Niece Shares Tribute After Burial

The Instagram Tribute

Lainey Mae Parton, a niece of the country music singer Dolly Parton, posted a tribute to her aunt on Instagram on Saturday, according to Fox News. Dolly Parton was laid to rest on Friday, her niece confirmed in the post.

"This is a really hard post for me to make," Lainey Mae wrote, per Fox News. "I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words." She referred to her aunt throughout as "Granny."

She wrote that Parton "never made my dreams feel too big" and "believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself." Lainey Mae said she could not think of a single bad memory with her aunt.

Family, Music and Beauty School

Parton and her husband did not have children. "Because she couldn't have kids of her own, she always made us feel like we were hers," Lainey Mae wrote, in the account reported by Fox News.

One memory she singled out was being asked to sing with Parton on the "Smoky Mountain DNA" album while she was a freshman in high school. "I was SO nervous," she wrote, adding that her aunt made her feel "safe, confident, and like I belonged right there beside her."

Lainey Mae also said Parton backed her decision to attend beauty school rather than college. "She financially supported me through school and helped me get my career started," she wrote. "She didn't just tell me to chase my dreams, she helped me get there."

The sources do not give Lainey Mae Parton's age, her parents' names, or further detail about her career.

Death and Public Tributes

Dolly Parton died peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee, on Aug. 25 at the age of 80, according to an obituary released by Woodlawn-Roesch-Patton Funeral Home & Woodlawn Memorial Park and reported by WCYB. The obituary describes a seven-decade career across music, film, television, theater and writing.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Carl Thomas Dean, who died in 2025, and by her parents, Avie Lee Caroline Owens and Robert Lee Parton Sr. Instead of flowers, the family asked for donations to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, the literacy program she founded to give free books to children. WCYB reported that no details of a public memorial or funeral service had been announced.

The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville devoted an entire Saturday performance to Parton's music, Rolling Stone reported. Another niece, Jada Star, played "The Orchard"; Carly Pearce opened with "Those Memories of You"; and the night closed with all the Opry musicians performing "9 to 5" with a cameo by Jelly Roll. Proceeds from the sold-out show went to the Imagination Library.