Last week, after the passing of beloved icon Dolly Parton, an intimate memorial service took place.
She was a philanthropist, a cultural institution, and a world-class entertainer who delighted generations.
Parton could have had a funeral with all of the bells and whistles. Instead, there was a small and intimate memorial.
Why?
Dolly Parton ‘wanted it very small’
On the Thursday, September 3 episode of Today, Dolly Parton’s cousin, Richie Owens, discussed laying her to rest.
“She wanted to keep it very quiet,” Owens emphasized.
“And,” he pointed out, “the word keeps getting brought up, ‘a funeral.’”
Owens suggested: “I don’t believe that is really the case in the situation.”
Not all memorials are funerals. These labels carry a lot of meaning for a lot of people, especially loved ones who are mourning a beloved family member.
Owens pointed out how his legendary cousin how shares a tombstone with her late husband, who passed away in early 2025.
“It was a burial to be buried beside her husband,” he detailed.
“And,” Owens emphasized, “she wanted it very small.”
By all accounts there were only 10 relatives there to lay her body to rest.
“A few family members were there,” Owens acknowledged. “Other people, I’m sure, would have liked to [have] been there, were either out doing other things and stuff.”
‘She wanted to keep it very, very private’
“It was very quiet,” Richie Owens said of Dolly Parton’s burial.
He described the affair as “very quickly done and not for any bad reasons whatsoever.”
Owens summarized: “It’s just what she wanted.”
Parton could have had an ostentatious funeral, with celebrities, massive crowds, and heads of state paying their respects. That was not her wish, however.
“She wanted to keep it very,” her cousin reiterated, “very private.”
Whatever other feelings she may have had about the end of her life, Parton also would not have wanted money to go to “waste” on a funeral when it could go towards helping more people.
“She really cared about her charities,” Owens described, referring to the Imagination Library among other projects.
“What you saw from Dolly is what she was in real life at home,” he confirmed. “[She was] personable, magical, just very giving.”
Owens added: “You got the same thing, she didn’t turn it on and off. Dolly was always Dolly. She had the greatest sense of humor.”
With the exception of perhaps a few disturbed individuals, the entire world continues to mourn Parton’s loss.
