Sylvester Stallone grabbed his phone the moment he heard Dolly Parton was gone.
He didn't call a publicist.
The story he told — from a Tennessee horse farm forty years ago — tells you exactly who she was.
Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton on the Set of Rhinestone
Stallone recorded himself from home, no script, just the memory he couldn't stop thinking about.
He and Dolly were filming Rhinestone in Tennessee when the production took a break and somebody thought it would be a fine idea to put both of them on a Tennessee Walking Horse.
"Is this horse used to like, double-decker?" Stallone asked.
They were told it was no problem.
"This thing was gigantic," Stallone said. "It's like riding a building."
The horse started prancing. Then it stubbed its toe, began to roll forward, and both of them went cascading off into the grass – the horse rolling right beside them.
"We would have been a couple of pancakes," Stallone said.
Dolly got up laughing.
"Let's do that again," she said.
Stallone ended his tribute the same way Dolly lived – without pretense.
"I miss you Dolly. I love you. Sad."
Kevin Costner and the Song Dolly Parton Wrote as a Goodbye
Kevin Costner's tribute was quieter.
"Oh my goodness. Where did you go Dolly?"
He wrote on Instagram that the world had stopped – that no one quite knew what to do with the silence she left behind.
"Thank you for trusting me with 'I Will Always Love You.' So gracious in all things."
Dolly wrote that song in 1974 as a personal goodbye to her mentor Porter Wagoner when she left his series.
It was never supposed to be a global phenomenon.
Costner's secretary heard it, fell in love with it, and pushed to get it into The Bodyguard.
Dolly sent the recording and didn't hear anything back.
"We are all at a loss this moment," Costner wrote. "Forgive us, but we will miss you so much."
Whitney Houston turned that quiet farewell into one of the best-selling singles in history – and Dolly never once made it about herself.
Dolly Parton Cause of Death and a Legacy No One Can Replace
Dolly Parton died Tuesday at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville after a brief battle with cancer – surrounded by loved ones at 80 years old.
President Trump ordered American flags lowered to half-staff for a full week beginning Tuesday evening.
"There has never been anyone like her, and never will," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He was right.
She grew up one of 12 children in a one-room cabin in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, raised by a father who never learned to read or write – and she packed her bags for Nashville the morning after she got her high school diploma.
She built her Imagination Library in his honor: more than 332 million free books mailed to children from birth to age five, because her father never had books of his own.
A March 2026 UMass/YouGov poll found 70% of Americans viewed her favorably – the highest of any public figure tested, twice the number who said the same about Taylor Swift.
Only 5% viewed her unfavorably – in a country that can't agree on anything.
America didn't just love Dolly Parton – it trusted her, and she never once gave anyone a reason not to.
She told the crowd at Dollywood's opening day in March, five months before cancer took her: "All is good."
That was Dolly.
The worry stayed with her and the warmth went to everyone else.
Sources:
- Fox News Digital, "Dolly Parton dead at 80, months after battling unknown health issue," Fox News, August 25, 2026.
- Fox Business, "Dolly Parton's remarkable legacy of giving extends far beyond music," Fox Business, August 26, 2026.
- Peter Pinedo, "Trump orders flags to be lowered for Dolly Parton," Fox News, August 25, 2026.
- Amy Curtis, "Dolly Parton's Legacy Is Her Love," Townhall, August 26, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Sylvester Stallone shares the wild Dolly Parton story he will never forget," Fox News, August 26, 2026.