World News Today: International News Headlines - The Hindu | The Hindu
· collected 2026-08-26 · by Rachel Rhine
Dolly Parton, an 80-year-old country music legend, died on August 25 at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville with her family present. Born in 1946 in Sevier County, Tennessee, Parton began singing at age 10 and left for Nashville in 1964 after high school to pursue a solo career. She reportedly turned down Elvis Presley's offer to record one of her songs, "I Will Always Love You", because he wanted half the publishing rights. The song went on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time, earning Parton significant royalties.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
In 1974, the night before Elvis Presley was due in the studio to record ‘I Will Always Love You’, Dolly Parton’s phone rang.
asserted
phone → record → You
Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s manager, had a condition nobody had mentioned earlier.
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nobody → have → condition
Elvis would record the song only if Parker’s side received half the publishing rights to it.
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side → record → it
She had just walked away from the television show that made her a household name in America, with no guarantee that a solo career would succeed.
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career → walk → guarantee
The biggest star in the world wanted her song.
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star → want → song
She said no and, by her own account, cried all night.
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She → say → account
Eighteen years later, Whitney Houston recorded ‘I will always love you’ for the opening sequence of The Bodyguard, turning it into one of the best-selling singles.
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I → record → singles
Because Parton had refused to give up any share of the song’s publishing rights, she received the royalties from its enormous success.
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she → refuse → success
She later joked that turning Elvis down had earned her enough money to buy Graceland.
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turning → joke → Graceland
She told that story for decades, always with a laugh, and how it held the shape of her whole life inside it.
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it → tell → it
Parton, the ‘Queen of Country Music’, died on August 25 at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville with her family around her.
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Parton → die → her
Her publicist said she had faced a brief battle with cancer.
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she → say → cancer
Dolly Parton was born on January 19, 1946, in a one-room cabin in Sevier County, in the East Tennessee mountains, the fourth of 12 children.
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Parton → bear → children
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a sharecropper who could not read or write.
uncertain
who → read → ?
Her mother sang the old ballads that had come over from the British Isles.
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that → sing → Isles
Parton sang on local radio at 10, appeared at the Grand Ole Opry at 13, and left for Nashville in 1964, the morning after she finished high school.
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she → sing → school
Porter Wagoner brought her onto his television show in September 1967, when she was 21.
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she → bring → September
In Star of the Show, the memoir she published last year, she wrote that the salary of $60,000 a year felt like a million dollars to a girl from Locust Ridge.
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salary → publish → Ridge
She stayed seven years and never got a raise.
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She → stay → raise
Wagoner gave her jewellery and a Cadillac instead and told her to consider the gifts her raise.
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Wagoner → give → gifts
She wanted the money.
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She → want → money
So she wrote her way out.
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she → write → way
‘I will always love you’ was a goodbye letter to him, and she sang it in his office before she played it for anyone else.
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she → love → anyone
He cried, then asked to produce the record.
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He → cry → record
‘Jolene’ came out of the same run of writing, and both songs are still being picked up half a century on.
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songs → come → writing
‘Pentatonix’ won her a Grammy with an a cappella ‘Jolene’ in 2017.
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Pentatonix → win → 2017
Beyoncé rewrote it for Cowboy Carter in 2024, with Parton voicing an interlude on the album.
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Parton → rewrite → album
She wrote close to 3,000 songs, put 25 singles at the top of Billboard’s country chart, and sold more than 100 million records.
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She → write → records
Ten Grammys came from 55 nominations, which left her the third most-nominated woman in the award’s history.
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which → come → history
The Country Music Hall of Fame took her in 1999, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
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Hall → take → 2022
Parton knew what her own image was doing.
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image → know → what
The look, she told National Public Radio in 2014, was a country girl’s idea of glamour...”, was a country girl’s idea of glamour, and if it seemed artificial to people, that was rather the point.
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that → tell → people
She made the joke before anyone else could.
uncertain
anyone → make → joke
Addressing a London audience in 1983, she thanked them for buying tickets and then quipped that it took all her earnings to maintain her look, given the cost of industrial-strength bras and the expense of looking so cheap.
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it → address → bras
The audience erupted in laughter.
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audience → erupt → laughter
By poking fun at herself first, she disarmed her critics.
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she → poke → critics
She made the joke before anyone else could.
uncertain
anyone → make → joke
Addressing a London audience in 1983, she thanked them for their ticket money, and then quipped that it took all her earnings to maintain her look, given the price of industrial bras and the cost of looking so cheap.
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it → address → bras
The room fell apart.
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room → fall → ?
A woman who gets there first has taken the weapon out of your hand.
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who → get → hand
…and 19 more, not listed.
