Dolly Parton Chose Her Funeral Song More Than a Decade Ago & Left an Unreleased Song to Be Heard in 2046
Developing story first seen 3 hours ago
New details have emerged about Dolly Parton's funeral following her death on 25 August 2026 at the age of 80. Her representatives confirmed she had requested a small, private service for immediate family, while her nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, revealed she wished to be laid to rest in a "beautiful bed of plush cotton" — details that add to earlier reports that Parton had chosen the hymn "If We Never Meet Again," rather than her famous "I Will Always Love You," to be played at her send-off.
The song held personal significance, having been her late father's favourite and performed at his own funeral, a choice Parton first revealed in a 2014 interview. She had also planned further beyond her funeral: in 2015, aged 69, she wrote and recorded an unreleased track called "My Place in History," sealed with a CD player inside a locked chestnut box at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, not to be opened until her 100th birthday on 19 January 2046. In her 2020 book, Parton joked about the uncertainty of the technology surviving that long, writing, "Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing ain't rotted."
- Parton's team confirms private funeral and burial in a "bed of plush cotton"
- She chose hymn "If We Never Meet Again," not "I Will Always Love You"
- Unreleased 2015 song sealed until her 100th birthday in 2046
Full account
Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday 25 August at the age of 80 following a brief illness with cancer, had settled on the song she wanted played at her own funeral more than ten years before her death. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly back in 2014, the country music icon was asked which piece of music she pictured accompanying her farewell, and her answer was not the one most people would have guessed.
Many assumed Parton would choose 'I Will Always Love You', the ballad she wrote and first recorded in 1974, which took on a second life as a global hit for Whitney Houston. Parton herself acknowledged as much, telling the magazine she expected it would be played 'when I die, just like they did with Whitney Houston.' She had watched the song used at Houston's funeral in 2012 and later described the moment it accompanied the singer's coffin as deeply affecting, saying it was when the reality of Houston's death struck her. Despite that connection, Parton's actual choice for her own service was 'If We Never Meet Again', an old country-gospel hymn written by Albert E. Brumley about being reunited beyond this life. The song held family significance: it was her father Robert Parton's favourite and had been sung at his funeral in 2000, and Parton said she hoped it would be sung at hers too.
Details of Parton's funeral wishes emerged this week through her representatives and her nephew, Bryan Seaver, who also serves as her head of security and confirmed her death. Seaver said Parton had requested a small, private service for immediate family, and that she wished to be buried in what he described as a bed of plush cotton. Her wishes extended beyond the funeral itself: producers of the upcoming Broadway show Dolly: A True Original Musical confirmed that, in line with her wishes, previews would still go ahead as planned from 7 December at New York's St James Theatre.
Parton's foresight over her legacy did not stop at her funeral arrangements. Years earlier, in 2015, she recorded a song called 'My Place in History' and sealed it inside a locked chestnut box, complete with a CD and a CD player, at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. She instructed that the box remain unopened until 19 January 2046 — what would have been her 100th birthday. Writing in her 2020 book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, she reflected wryly on the uncertainty of the gesture, noting there was 'no telling what music is going to be by then' and joking that she simply hoped the recording would still play and 'the whole thing ain't rotted.' She also said she hoped to live long enough to hear it herself when the time capsule was finally opened.
Where outlets differ
Source 1 (Billboard) focuses more on the time capsule and 'My Place in History', framing both the funeral song and the sealed recording as evidence of Parton's long-term planning for her musical legacy; it gives fuller detail on the Dollywood box and her 2020 book quote.
Source 2 (Daily Mail) spends more time on the backstory of 'I Will Always Love You', including its 1974 origins tied to her split from Porter Wagoner and Houston's 1992 film cover, and quotes at greater length her emotional account of Houston's funeral in 2012.
Only Source 2 mentions the exact date of her father's funeral (2000) is corroborated with his full name, Robert Parton Sr., and only Source 2 notes the Broadway musical Dolly: A True Original Musical proceeding as she wished.
Only Source 1 details the funeral logistics beyond the song choice — the private family-only service and her wish to be buried in a bed of plush cotton — attributed to nephew Bryan Seaver.
Source 1 does not mention the Broadway show at all, while Source 2 does not mention Parton's burial wishes or the cotton bed detail.
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