Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Dolly Parton’s faith kept her optimistic through her health struggles.
The country music legend passed away on Tuesday (25.08.26) at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer, and while she had previously admitted she had stepped back from the spotlight due to undisclosed health issues, insiders insisted she wasn’t worried about the end of her life because she had put her trust in God.
A source told People magazine: “From the time that Dolly Parton was born, she was surrounded by faith, by God, by Jesus. Her grandfather was a preacher. Even in her Broadway show, she shows how much faith means to her.
“And so it’s natural for people of faith to believe that God is in control. It doesn’t matter what doctors may say, people may say. It’s not over until God says it’s over. I think she lived every day working and as long as God hadn’t called her home, she was here and she had more work to do.”
The insider believed Dolly’s faith impacted how she spoke about her health struggles in public.
The source explained: “She came from a Pentecostal background. Her grandfather was a Pentecostal preacher.
“In the Pentecostal faith, and even the Bible says the power of life and death is in the tongue. And so the things that you give power to, the things that you speak out loud are the things that are going to come.
“And so I believe she thought as a Christian, I’m going to speak faith, I’m going to speak life, I’m going to speak abundance and I’m not going to speak death.
“I think she truly put her life in his hands and said, ‘When it’s my time to go, it’ll be my time to go.’ And I know that she leaned on her faith during these last few years. It’s how we deal with hardships in life.”
Dolly was also known for her philanthropic endeavours, including her literacy charity the Imagination Library, and buying uniforms and football equipments for the teams at her old high school in Tennessee, which was influenced by her faith.
The insider said: “She knew she was blessed and the Bible says, ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ And I believe she took that to heart. She gave back more than anyone I know.
“The way that she gave back came from a heart of gratitude and that heart of gratitude I believe overflowed from her relationship with Jesus.”
Dolly – whose husband Carl Dean passed away in March 2025 – spoke of how her life is “guided” by faith last year.
She told People magazine: “It doesn’t come in words from me, it comes in feelings and a knowing that I have, ‘Okay, time to go now. Time to do this, time to do that. No Dolly don’t do that,’ kind of thing.
“But I’m just guided. I just feel that I have a mission or possibly my ministry so to speak. I feel like I’m supposed to be doing things and I will quit when God tells me to quit and I won’t quit anytime before that.”
