I got the chance to speak to Dolly Parton, and she was full of great life lessons. These are my favorites.

Dolly Parton taught us so many life lessons.

Paul Natkin/Getty Images Dolly Parton died on Tuesday.

She was 80 years old.

I had the chance to interview Parton, and she was full of great life lessons.

Here are just a few of my favorites.

When I was first invited to speak to Dolly Parton in 2022, I spent hours upon hours digging through her old interviews.

I wanted to find new things to ask the woman who had already been famous for half a century .

Today, I found myself doing the same thing.

Not to prepare for an assignment, but to mourn the fact that I'll never get to chat with Parton, who died Tuesday at the age of 80, again.

Parton was so many things — a songwriter, a performer, an actor, a fashion icon, a philanthropist, a cookbook author — yet she was so unquestionably singular.

So unapologetically herself.

She taught us many lessons.

These are just a few of my favorites.

"I don't like to be like everybody else." Harry Langdon/Getty Images As news of Parton's death reverberated around the world, one clip that quickly began circulating on social media was her 1978 interview with Barbara Walters .