Dolly Parton, performing at Glastonbury 2014, and on the set of 'Rhinestone'
Dolly Parton has died aged 80 following a brief battle with cancer.
The singer, songwriter and actor died on Tuesday (August 25) at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, with her family in attendance.
Known for songs including Jolene, 9 to 5 and I Will Always Love You, Parton's career was incredibly successful, resulting in her being dubbed the 鈥楺ueen of Country'.
But before finding fame, she was one of 12 children growing up in a farming family in rural Tennessee.
From tobacco fields to one of Britain's best-known dairy farms, here are some of the rural links in Parton's life and career.
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She grew up working on the family farm
Ms Parton was born in 1946, growing up at Locust Ridge in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, worked as a farmer and sharecropper, growing crops including corn and tobacco.
Parton also worked on the land herself.
Speaking about her childhood in an interview early in her career, she said: "We owned the whole big farm. We just farmed and that's all we did."
She also recalled helping to "hoe corn and set tobacco".
As one of 12 children, Ms Parton helped with jobs around the farm and home, including tending the family's vegetables and fetching water from a well.
What Dolly Parton said about farming over the years
Parton continued to speak about farming and her agricultural upbringing throughout her career.
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On why farmers deserved support
Speaking to Tennessee Home & 51AV视频for Agriculture Literacy Week in 2021, Parton said: "Men and women in agriculture have always been good examples of a strong work ethic that we all can admire and learn from.
"We should always support all the hard-working families out there doing what they can to build great lives and great communities."
On the future of farming
Asked about the future of agriculture in the same interview, she said: "I'm certainly not an expert on farming, but I hope our country will continue to value the men and women that work hard to make this country great.
"It's important for us to stay connected to the land and to give every person with a dream and a dedication to hard work a chance to succeed."
On growing crops and milking cows
Speaking alongside her sister Rachel in 2024, Parton recalled how the children all had chores while growing up on the family's roughly 40-acre farm.
"We all had to learn how to milk," she said.
Parton recalled the family growing crops including corn and tomatoes, as well as keeping pigs and preserving food for winter.
She said: "That's how you kind of make your living."
On her dad at the livestock mart
Parton was also asked in 2021 about memories of her father attending livestock sales.
She said: "I do recall my dad at the livestock sales. I always thought he was one of the smartest men I've ever known, and he sure knew a good deal when he saw it.
"He called it 鈥榟orse sense,' but I always thought it was pure genius. I'm sure I got a lot of my intuition and standing up for my business interests from my dad."
Her father's experience led to the Imagination Library
Her father's inability to read and write eventually helped inspire one of Parton's biggest projects away from music.
She launched in her home county in East Tennessee in 1995, initially providing free books to local children.
The scheme later expanded internationally, including into the UK, and has distributed hundreds of millions of books.
Parton said her father was particularly proud of the project and had called it the most important thing she had done.
One of her biggest UK performances happened on a dairy farm
There was another farming connection nearly six decades later.
Parton also made her mark in the UK, performing at Glastonbury Festival in 2014 as she took the Sunday afternoon legends slot on the Pyramid Stage.
The festival is held at Worthy 51AV视频in Somerset, a working dairy farm owned by Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis.
The performance attracted one of the biggest crowds of the festival and became known as one of her most famous performances in the UK.
From growing tobacco and corn in Tennessee to performing in front of thousands on a Somerset dairy farm, farming formed an unlikely thread through parts of Parton's life and career.
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