Long before Dolly Parton’s passing at 80, the country music legend had already thought about one deeply personal detail of her final farewell: the song she wanted sung at her funeral.
And surprisingly, Dolly did not choose “I Will Always Love You,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “Jolene,” or any of the other songs that defined her extraordinary career.
Instead, she chose an old country-gospel hymn called “If We Never Meet Again.”
Dolly revealed the choice during a 2014 interview, more than a decade before her passing on August 25, 2026.
The reason behind it had nothing to do with commercial success or her own musical achievements.
The hymn had been a favorite of her father, Robert Lee Parton, whom Dolly affectionately referred to as her daddy. When he passed away in 2000, the family performed “If We Never Meet Again” at his funeral.
That experience stayed with Dolly.
When later asked what music she would want at her own funeral, she remembered her father’s favorite hymn and said she hoped it would also be sung when her own time came.
The choice reveals something important about Dolly.
Despite becoming one of the most successful entertainers in music history, many of the things she treasured most continued to connect her to her childhood, her faith and the family she grew up with in Tennessee.
Her father was particularly important to her.
Robert Lee worked hard to provide for Dolly and her 11 siblings despite the family having very little money. Dolly frequently credited both of her parents with shaping the person she eventually became.
She also spoke proudly about her father’s intelligence and work ethic, even though he never had the opportunity to receive much formal education.
That personal connection eventually influenced one of Dolly’s biggest charitable projects, the Imagination Library, which she created partly in honor of her father. The program grew from a small Tennessee initiative into an international effort that has provided books to millions of children.
So choosing one of her father’s favorite songs for her own farewell carried considerably more meaning than simply selecting a beautiful hymn.
It connected Dolly’s final chapter to the man who had been there at the beginning of her story.
The newly resurfaced funeral details also reveal that Dolly wanted her service to remain small and private, attended primarily by immediate family and people closest to her rather than becoming an enormous public spectacle.
That may seem surprising considering the scale of her fame.
Following her passing, tributes appeared around the world, with musicians, entertainers and fans celebrating a career that lasted more than six decades. Yet Dolly apparently wanted her actual farewell to remain much more intimate.
There is another remarkable piece of music connected to her final wishes as well.
Years ago, Dolly recorded an unreleased song called “My Place in History” and placed it in a time capsule at Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort. The plan was for the recording to remain unheard until 2046, the year Dolly would have turned 100.
Dolly later joked about how difficult it was knowing she had written a song she couldn’t release immediately.
Now the recording has taken on an entirely different significance. Unless those plans are changed, fans may eventually hear a brand-new Dolly Parton song decades after her passing.
But when it came to the music chosen for her actual goodbye, Dolly looked backward rather than forward.
She returned to a hymn connected to her father, her upbringing and her family’s faith.
For an entertainer who could have chosen almost any famous song from one of the largest catalogs in country music, that decision says something powerful about what ultimately mattered most to her.
Dolly Parton spent a lifetime creating songs heard around the world, but for her final farewell, she wanted the same simple gospel hymn that once helped her family say goodbye to her father: “If We Never Meet Again.
