Dolly Parton‘s sister Stella Parton has claimed no one in Nashville has offered her condolences in the weeks since the country music star died at age 80.
Dolly passed away on August 25 following a brief battle with an undisclosed cancer.
Stella, 77, told Gayle King in a wide-ranging CBS Mornings interview shared on Thursday that the music community in Tennessee has been silent as she mourns her sister.
‘I haven’t heard from anybody in Nashville since my sister passed away,’ she said. ‘I haven’t had one condolence from anyone – anybody that I know, entertainers that I know. Nobody. Not one.’
She speculated that it might be due to politics as she said: ‘I’m assuming it might be because of my political, you know, activism on social media. I don’t know.’
Contrarily, Dolly was famously mum when it came to sharing her stance on politics.
Dolly Parton’s sister Stella Parton has claimed no one in Nashville has offered her condolences in the weeks since the country music star died at age 80
Dolly passed away on August 25 following a brief battle with an undisclosed cancer; pictured in 2015
But Stella, who is also a singer, said the Jolene hitmaker definitely had her opinions, but ‘would never have offended anyone.’
She explained about her older sibling: ‘She never would have done that. She was smarter than me. You know, I tell everything. And I like everybody knowing what I think about it. Not her!’
And she noted that the I Will Always Love You singer was keen to keep her political views under wraps, stating: ‘She’s a good businesswoman.’
Elsewhere in the interview, Stella shockingly revealed that she never saw her superstar sister without makeup after she became a star.
‘Not after she got to be ‘Dolly Parton.’ No, she would sleep in her makeup when she would come spend the night with me,’ she shared.
When King asked Stella if she’d ever asked to see Dolly without her glammed up look, she quipped: ‘Oh, I knew what she looked like, of course!
‘Because she looked like me without her makeup, so I knew what she looked like without it.’
Throughout the interview, Stella reiterated her close bond with Dolly and their tight-knit family dynamic.
‘I haven’t heard from anybody in Nashville since my sister passed away,’ Stella said. ‘I haven’t had one condolence from anyone – anybody that I know, entertainers that I know. Nobody. Not one’; the sisters pictured in 2014
L-R Siblings Stella, Freida, Dolly, and Floyd pictured in 1981
The 11-time Grammy winner was one of 12 brothers and sisters who grew up in the mountains of Tennessee.
Once Dolly achieved superstardom, she spoke openly about maintaining a glamorous presentation no matter what.
In a 1994 interview with David Letterman, she insisted: ‘If I’m going to go out in public, I think the people expect to see me look like a star; I expect to look like a star.’
She said the exceptions were when she was ‘going out to the lake house’ or with her husband Carl, who passed away in 2025.
Similarly, the beloved icon explained to Wendy Williams in 2014 that she’d never answer the door at home ‘without makeup or hair.’
Dolly added: ‘I spend a lot of time in California, where they have earthquakes. I never take my makeup off at night, ’cause I thought, if I have to run out in the streets I have to look good ’cause you know there’s gonna be cameras everywhere.’
