Dolly Parton's family is speaking out for the first time since laying her to rest.
On Saturday, August 29, Parton's niece, Lainey Mae Parton, shared an emotional Instagram tribute to the woman she called "Granny," a day after the country icon's private burial at Nashville's Woodlawn Memorial Park. "I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words," she wrote.
Lainey Mae described a bond that shaped her life. From childhood, she said, Dolly had "a way of making me feel like I was enough," never treating her dreams as too big or her goals as out of reach. When Lainey Mae chose beauty school over college, Dolly didn't question the decision - she helped fund it and supported the start of her career. One memory stood out: singing alongside Dolly on the "Smoky Mountain DNA" album as a nervous high school freshman. "She had a way of making me feel like nothing bad could happen," Lainey Mae wrote. "She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself."
Dolly, who had no biological children of her own, treated her nieces and nephews as family, Lainey Mae said, adding that she couldn't recall a single bad memory with her aunt.
"It still doesn't feel real that she's gone," she wrote. "I'm going to miss her voice, her laugh, her hugs, and just knowing she was there."
Parton died August 25 at age 80 after a private battle with cancer.
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