The last thing Dolly Parton requested of her sister Stella Parton was a prayer.
Stella shared the heartbreaking detail from her final conversation with the late singer during a “CBS Mornings” segment Thursday.
“That’s the last thing Dolly asked me for, was prayer,” she recalled.
Stella also told Gayle King she believes her sister didn’t prioritize her health as much as she should have.
“My sister worked so hard for so long and just kept going. Even until the last conversation I had with her, she was working,” the 77-year-old remembered. “That was her passion.”
Stella noted that she and the Grammy winner were very close, speaking every Tuesday morning on the phone over coffee.
Despite her passing, Stella insisted to King that Dolly was “still in the room” at RCA Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, where they recorded the interview.
Elsewhere in the emotional sitdown, Stella revealed many of Dolly’s family members were unaware that the songwriter was battling cancer prior to her death last month.
“Dolly could not bear negative things and she would not have wanted her fans worried about it,” Dolly’s sibling shared. “She didn’t want a lot of the family worried about it.”
Stella clarified, “Some of us knew, the ones that were closer.”
She also explained why her family has chosen to not share what type of cancer Dolly was diagnosed with.
“That was her business,” Stella said. “She didn’t tell us that we could say it, so out of respect for her, I can talk about my love for her, describe who she is to me, but it’s not my business to tell her business.”
Last week, Stella made headlines for slamming the “stampede of endless misinformation” regarding the country music icon following her death, including a “tremendous amount of AI and endless garbage.”
She went on to highlight the positivity Dolly brought to the world throughout her career and emphasized how much Dolly “loved her fans.”
The songwriter died on Aug. 25 at 80.
Three days later, Page Six exclusively reported that she was laid to rest in an intimate burial beside late husband Carl Thomas Dean.
Dolly’s cousin Richie Owens later revealed details about the “quick” memorial.
“She wanted it very small. … She wanted to keep it very, very private,” he said on the “Today” show last week, adding that “a few” loved ones were present for the ceremony.
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