Country music icon Dolly Parton chose the song she wanted played at her funeral more than a decade ago and left an unreleased song not meant to be heard until 2046 on her 100th birthday.
Ms. Parton selected “If We Never Meet Again,” a country-gospel hymn that was her father’s favorite and was performed at his funeral. She said she hoped the same song would one day be sung at hers.
The prolific singer-songwriter and beloved celebrity died Tuesday at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer.
Her representatives confirmed Tuesday that she requested a small, private service for immediate family. Her nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, said Ms. Parton wanted to be laid to rest in a “beautiful bed of plush cotton.”
Separately, Ms. Parton left a locked chestnut box containing an unreleased original song titled “My Place in History.” Written in 2015, the song was to be unveiled on Jan. 19, 2046, her 100th birthday.
In her 2020 memoir/songbook “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics,” she acknowledged the uncertainty of leaving 2015 technology to be opened decades later.
“There’s no telling what music is going to be by then,” she wrote. “Hopefully, it will play and the whole thing ain’t rotted.”
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