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At 79, legendary music artist and entrepreneur Dolly Parton said she has no plans to slow down, but behind her busy schedule, she draws strength from something deeper to face life’s toughest moments: her faith.
Parton lost her husband, Carl Dean, in March after nearly six decades of marriage, marking a profound change in her life. Through the grief, she said her belief in God has helped sustain her.
“My faith has helped me through it all because I am a person of faith, even though I lost him on this earthly plane,” Parton told “America Reports” on Thursday. “I miss him every day.”
“Knowing that he’s in God’s arms now and not mine, but he’s still in my heart and in my memories — I treasure all that, and that’s how I get through my work and my faith that’s carried me on through.”
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Parton and Dean were married in 1966 in Ringgold, Ga., a place they returned to “every year” around their anniversary. This year, she made the journey alone.
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“I went down there the other day on our anniversary,” she said. “I felt like he was there with me, and I put his wedding ring around my little gold chain and wore it. I wore my little original wedding rings, and I just stood there.”
Despite her loss, Parton hasn’t slowed down. In the past year alone, she released an album titled “Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith and Fables,” marked the 40th anniversary of her Dollywood theme park, wrote a children’s book, and prepared for the premiere of a Broadway musical based on her life.
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“I love my work. I don’t ever want to retire,” said the 11-time Grammy winner. “Everything that you do, it’s just like a tree with many branches, with many leaves, and every dream — new dreams just kind of work off of them.”
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The “dreamer-in-chief” joked about retirement only happening if she gets sick or “just falls over dead,” and said each new project gives her more purpose and drive.
“I really feel like I’m doing what I was meant to do. Every new thing gives me, just, new energy. Energy begets energy, as they say.”
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Throughout it all, she credits her faith as the foundation of her strength and resilience.
“I remember scriptures from the Bible like, ‘Through God, all things are possible,’ and, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’ — not to sound like a preacher,” Parton said.
“I think if you grab on to those things, and you use that for strength and inspiration, there’s just a lot of stuff that can be done, if you really believe that it’s going to happen, and you have faith.”
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