Olivia Rodrigo's 7th Week At No. 1

Three weeks after her death at 80 following a brief battle with cancer, Dolly Parton made a surprise posthumous appearance at Wednesday night’s (Sept. 16) 2026 Americana Awards and Honors at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Before her passing on Aug. 25, Parton recorded a pre-taped message accepting the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The segment was introduced by Emmylou Harris, who talked about the “unthinkable” death of her friend, who she called a “a tiny, extraordinary woman” who made the world a “better, brighter and kinder place.” Harris recalled one of Parton’s many pearls of wisdom (the famously glam country icon, fittingly, actually called them “rhinestones of wisdom”), delivered as a four-part motto: “dream more, learn more, care more, be more.”