Dolly Parton Laid to Rest in Private Funeral

Dolly Parton was laid to rest in a private service attended only by her immediate family last week following her death on Aug. 25 at age 80.

The country music icon’s funeral was held in Nashville on Friday, according to an obituary posted by Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum, where she was laid to rest next to her late husband, Carl Thomas Dean.

Nashville’s NewsChannel 5 reporter Amelia Young shared photos of flowers and a book of condolences at Parton’s tomb, which featured a brass plaque showing Parton and Dean’s names and engravings of their childhood homes. The couple’s marriage date was also included, as well as a pair of intertwining wedding bands.

Parton’s great-niece, Lainey Parton, opened up about the “Jolene” singer’s death on Instagram.

“This is a really hard post for me to make. I wanted to wait until after my granny was laid to rest yesterday before I tried to put any of this into words,” Lainey wrote on Saturday. “From the time I was little, my granny always had a way of making me feel like I was enough. She never made my dreams feel too big or made me feel like I couldn’t do something. She believed in me before I even knew how to believe in myself. Most people can think of at least one bad memory with everyone in their family. I honestly can’t think of one with her.”

“Because she couldn’t have kids of her own, she always made us feel like we were hers,” she said. “She loved us that way, and I’ll forever be grateful for that.”

Dolly died on Aug. 25, with her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announcing the news in an Instagram video that same day. Later that day, Dolly’s representatives confirmed that she had died following a “brief battle with cancer.”

She was admitted to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville on Friday, Aug. 21, where she died four days later. She had also reportedly been dealing with kidney and autoimmune issues prior to her death, PEOPLE reports.

The “Coat of Many Colors” singer’s representative previously said in a statement that she had requested a private service and asked fans and friends who wanted to pay their respects to do so by tagging her on social media or by sharing a donation to the Imagination Library, her book gifting program that mails free books to children from birth until they begin school.