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Since Dolly Parton died at the age of 80, tributes have been pouring in from across the entertainment world and beyond. Rather than dwelling on the circumstances of her death, much of the commentary has focused on her character and the unusually wide range of people and groups mourning her, spanning conservative Christian communities and the LGBTQIA community alike.

Parton was an American singer-songwriter and actress with a career spanning decades, best known for hits such as "Jolene" and a songwriting catalogue of more than 3,000 tracks. Alongside her musical success, she was noted for tackling difficult social themes in her work well before they became widely discussed, and for gestures such as renaming one of her attractions and voicing support for racial justice causes, which contributed to her reputation as an inclusive public figure.

The current wave of tributes matters because it reflects how someone from the country music tradition, often associated with a particular audience, came to be embraced across normally divided cultural and political lines. This has prompted wider reflection on what made her such a broadly unifying figure in American public life.