Dolly Parton dies after brief battle with cancer as final sighting revealed

Dolly Parton died after being diagnosed with cancer , her team has confirmed.

Tributes are tonight being paid to Dolly Parton, who has died at the age of 80 . The death of the singer, behind hits including Jolene and I Will Always Love You, was revealed by her nephew, Bryan Seaver.

Appearing in a video he said: "Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians, and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent. By her example, we believed that anything was possible. She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history."

Dolly's team said tonight that at her request "a small, private service will be held for immediate family" and that fans could make donations to her charitable Imagination Library in her memory.

President Donald Trump has ordered flags to be lowered across the US in her memory saying: "There has never been anyone like her, and never will."

After starring in 9 To 5 together, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin shared their tribtues to Dolly Parton.

Jane said: "I am devastated... I never knew anyone like her. She was the voluptuous embodiment of empathy. That's something of hers she'd want us all to take with us. To her gay and trans fans, I want to you to know that she loved you. RIP, beautiful woman. We love you."

Dolly Parton had one request of her theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - when she died, they were to stay open.

Dollywood has confirmed, following the announcement of her death, that they won't be closing their doors anytime soon, saying "the show must go on".

A representative for the theme park has released a statement expressing all the employees deep sorrow at losing Dolly and their commitment to continuing her legacy as she wanted them to. In the near future, they will hold an official memorial for her, but for now, they are staying open.

Many of Dolly Parton's songs reveal details of her life, whether that's through the lyrics themselves or the hidden true story behind them.

Dolly's single 'Coat of Many Colours' is an autobiographical song, about how her mother had made her a coat out of rags when she was younger. In the lyrics, Dolly recounted how her family struggled to afford clothes and her mother's ingenuity with a needle and thread left her daughter at the mercy of classmates' ridicule.

She sang: “I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be, in my coat of many colors my mama made for me.”

Dolly really did grow up in a Tennessee Mountain Home. She spent her childhood in a two-room log cabin in Locust Ridge, with her parents and all her siblings.