President Trump Orders Flags at Half-Staff Following Dolly Parton's Death

WASHINGTON — President Trump mourned the death of country music legend Dolly Parton, announcing plans to order the flag to be flown at half-staff for a week in her honor. "This is a true loss for millions of people," Trump posted on Truth Social. "There has never been anyone like her, and never will. Rest in Peace, Dolly! The World loves you." Trump hailed Parton as "one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER." Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced the country music queen’s death on Tuesday. She was 80. Seaver stated in a video message, "The sadness lays with us, not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus. My family and I have shared a lifetime of beautiful memories with Dolly, but so have you. She has always been on your television, your record player, your CD, and on your phone playlist, becoming an extended part of your family, whether you liked it or not." Parton’s cause of death is not immediately clear. In her final interview, published by People magazine last Friday, the "Jolene" singer hinted that she had "been through hard times with my health." Over the past year, the superstar scrapped multiple performances and appearances. Her late husband, Carl Dean, died in March of last year. She also stressed that she was "still workin" and had goals she wanted to achieve, such as developing "avatar performances" for audiences. The "9 to 5" singer was famously nonpolitical and repeatedly refused to weigh in on pressing political debates, cognizant of fans on "both sides of the fence." At one point she claimed to have twice turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the US alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. "I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID," she told NBC’s "The Today Show" in 2021, noting that the overture came from both the Trump and Biden administrations. "Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure. But I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it." Tributes for her quickly poured in. "There are no words to adequately express the sorrow our family and indeed, all Tennesseans, feel in the loss of Dolly Parton," Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running for governor, posted on X. "An iconic leader who loved our great state and nation. Her passing leaves a void that no one can ever fill. Dolly, we will always love you." Parton was a proud native of Tennessee.