Dolly Parton wore rhinestones and fringe, not a military uniform, but the American music legend spent decades finding her own ways to serve those who served America.

Parton, who died Tuesday at 80 in Nashville, forged a lasting connection with the military during her seven-decade career.

Her iconic blonde likeness appeared on US military aircraft, she performed for troops and military families, recorded patriotic music and once took the Grand Ole Opry stage as American service members watched from Iraq.

The connection was personal, too.

Carl Dean, Parton’s husband of nearly six decades, enlisted in the Army shortly after they began dating and served for two years, according to Biography.com.

The couple married in 1966, and remained together until Dean’s death in 2025.

Parton once described her patriotism in simple terms.

“I’ve got an all-American heart,” she told Vanity Fair in a 1991 profile.

Vanity Fair accompanied Parton to Fort Hood, Texas, for that profile, where she met service members, including soldiers who had returned from the Persian Gulf only weeks earlier.

The magazine also reported that Parton’s likeness appeared on a KC-135 and an A-10 Thunderbolt during the Gulf War era.

During her Fort Hood visit, Parton climbed onto the shoulders of an Army major near two M-1 tanks and delivered a pointed message to Saddam Hussein in a way only she could.

The latest news on music icon Dolly Parton’s death at 80

“Saddam Hussein, you son of a b—-!” Parton shouted, according to Vanity Fair. “You touch one of my men again and see what happens!”

Later, Parton posed for photographs with soldiers and their families and signed autographs inside a Fort Hood theater, the magazine reported.

The service members eventually began chanting: “Dol-ly! U-S-A! Dol-ly! U-S-A!”

More than a decade later, Parton’s connection with the military produced another memorable tribute.

At a September 2004 event at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in Tennessee, Parton unveiled patriotic nose art bearing her likeness on a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to the 134th Air Refueling Wing, according to an Air National Guard photo record preserved by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

The aircraft was dubbed “Miss Dolly.” Parton autographed the artwork and performed several songs for airmen and their families at the event.

The appearance followed the release of Parton’s For God and Country on Veterans Day 2003. The album combined patriotic standards with original Parton songs.

“I’m not a bit political, but I’m extremely patriotic,” Parton said of the album, according to her official website, as cited by Military.com.

Parton’s music had addressed war and military families before that album. Military.com noted that her 1970 song “Daddy Won’t Be Home Anymore” concerned a mother preparing to tell her children their father had died at war, while “Welcome Home,” from For God and Country, centered on a parent waiting for a son to return from overseas.

In April 2005, Parton performed during a Grand Ole Opry live broadcast in Nashville while US troops watched by video feed from Iraq, according to DVIDS.

Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also joined Parton onstage. According to DVIDS, Rumsfeld visited Nashville to thank Parton, the Grand Ole Opry and the American people for supporting US troops.

Parton’s work with military families continued later in her career. She participated in a virtual USO program in December 2022 that allowed service members around the world and their families to speak with her and ask questions, according to Military.com.

Her Imagination Library also blessed military families. In 2024, the program’s Washington affiliate partnered with the Government Employees Health Association on a $15,000 grant to expand free books for young children in military families, Military.com reported.

The effort served families at Naval Base Kitsap, Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Station Everett.

The military community was among those mourning Parton following her death Tuesday.

Boot Campaign, a nonprofit that works with veterans and military families, remembered Parton’s support in a tribute posted to X.

“We are so heartbroken to hear of the passing of @DollyParton who used her platform to support so many, including Veterans, military families and our work at Boot Campaign,” the organization wrote. “Rest in peace, Dolly.”

The group accompanied the tribute with an image of Parton saluting while wearing camouflage pants and combat-style boots beneath the hashtag “#LaceUpAMERICA.”

The official US Marine Corps account offered an even simpler farewell Tuesday, sharing a photograph of Parton singing in camouflage.

“RIP Dolly Parton.”

Parton’s family said a small, private service will be held for immediate family at her request. Fans and friends around the world were encouraged to pay tribute to Parton on social media by tagging @DollyParton or by leaving a message at DollyParton.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family asked that donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the literacy program she founded in 1995.

“It costs a lot of money to look this cheap,” Dolly Parton once famously said — but if you ask us, the country music legend’s personal style is downright priceless.

The 11-time Grammy winner died Tuesday at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy as big as her teased-to-the-heavens hair, as sparkling as the sequined stage looks she loved, and as colorful as the titular coat she sang about in 1971.

Below, a look back at Parton’s most iconic fashion moments from across the course of her six-decade career.

Actor John Cusack threw his support behind fellow Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo over the weekend as Ruffalo pushed back against Paramount’s accusations that his criticism of tech giant Oracle invoked “antisemitic tropes.”

“Solidarity — well said.” Cusack wrote on X in response to Ruffalo’s lengthy defense of his remarks, which centered on Oracle’s ties to the Israeli military and the company’s leadership.

The controversy erupted after Ruffalo criticized Oracle executive vice chair Safra Catz, who also sits on Paramount’s board, and reposted a video of her discussing “really profoundly scary technologies” Oracle used to assist the Israeli military following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks.

Ruffalo tied his criticism of Oracle to the Ellison family’s proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, pointing to Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his son, Paramount CEO David Ellison. The actor argued that the deal, which would put CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. under the same family’s control, raises concerns about editorial independence, jobs and more.

“These ‘really profoundly scary technologies’ will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” the Marvel actor wrote in an Instagram story.

Paramount subsequently issued a statement saying it was “troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked” in what it characterized as a business dispute.

“Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong. They’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe,” a company spokesperson added.

Ruffalo fired back Saturday, telling Fox News Digital the accusation that he is antisemitic was “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.” He maintained that criticism of the Israeli government, military technology contracts or the executives behind them should not be equated with criticism of Jewish people.

“Scrutinizing the Ellisons, including Oracle’s business built on data, surveillance technology and government contracts and the serious threat to editorial freedom and the loss of a livelihood for thousands of families, is fair and necessary,” he said.

“The $111 billion deal would hand one family control over CNN, HBO and Warner Bros., backed in part by foreign money whose influence on editorial decisions has never been fully explained to the public.”

“Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called for serious national security review, and regulators still haven’t given the public a real answer. Until they do, the merger shouldn’t move forward. Now is the time to dive boldly into all these issues, not step back or concede,” he added.

The potential merger has also drawn legal scrutiny from a coalition of 12 state attorneys general challenging the deal. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have agreed not to close the transaction until five days after a court rules on the merits of the states’ claims or June 1, 2027, whichever comes first.

In a statement noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Simon Wiesenthal Center CEO Jim Berk said, “Words matter, and so does the willingness to draw a line when legitimate debate gives way to antisemitic tropes. We commend Paramount for speaking clearly and refusing to allow prejudice to masquerade as political or corporate criticism.”

Film critic Christian Toto, the founder and editor of Hollywood in Toto, told Fox News, “I’m guessing Mark would rather John Cusack have stayed silent on the matter!” Toto then pointed to controversial comments that Cusack has made on the situation in the Middle East. 

Toto continued, “More importantly, the issue in play is getting more attention now that antisemitism is flaring up in the culture at large and within the Democratic Party. That hasn’t bled into Hollywood, Inc., yet, but it might sooner than later. Maybe a good example of that fracture is happening with the Paramount merger fight. Some Hollywood groups and Democrats are requesting a resolution to the matter, while others have dug their heels in, battling the merger at all costs.”

He concluded, “This could get ugly, becoming a Blue on Blue battle within La La Land that could cause real damage to careers.”