The country music legend Dolly Parton is in mourning this week after her younger brother Randy died following a battle with cancer. He was 67 years-old.
Parton, 75, took to Facebook to reveal his death to her fans.
“My brother Randy has lost his battle with cancer,” she wrote. “The family and I are grieving his loss but we know he is in a better place than we are at this time. We are a family of faith and we believe that he is safe with God and that he is joined by members of the family that have gone on before and have welcomed him with joy and open arms.Randy was a great singer, writer, and entertainer.”
“He sang, played guitar and bass in my band for many years,” Parton added. “He headed his own show at Dollywood since it opened in 1986,” He’s had several chart records of his own, but his duet with me on ‘Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You’ will always be a highlight in my own career. ‘You Are My Christmas,’ our duet on my latest Christmas album, joined with his daughter Heidi, will always be a favorite. It was his last musical recording and he shined on it just like he’s shining in heaven now.He is survived by his wife Deb, his daughter Heidi, son Sabyn, grandsons Huston and Trent.We will always love him and he will always be in our hearts.”
Born in 1953, Randy was the eighth of the twelve Parton siblings, according to People Magazine. Back in 2018, Parton herself spoke out to talk about some of her fondest holiday memories with her siblings, revealing that they enjoyed making dumplings together.
“I’m the best! It’s my favorite dish, of all my brothers and sisters — because I cook just like my mom,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “My mom’s dead now, but everybody else, they put too much butter, too much lard, they won’t do this and that. But I still cook good!”
“I make the best dumplings ever, ever, ever. I even make little containers of it and give to my brothers and sisters for Christmas,” Parton added. “I usually cook a big, big pot, and then I’ll always have some for them to take home and freeze and thaw out and eat when they get to missin’ me.”
Randy is the second sibling that Parton has lost in recent years, as her brother Floyd Parton died in 2018 at the age of 61.
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