Here comes the enormity of Dolly Parton’s legacy again.
Weeks after the country icon’s death from cancer at the age of 80, Parton was honored with a special tribute at the 2026 Emmy Awards on Sept. 14 that left not one dry eye inside the Peacock Theatre.
“If there are truly angels on earth, then we just lost one: Dolly Parton,” Sally Field shared onstage. “It was my great good fortune to have worked with Dolly in a film called Still Magnolias and, over the years, I never stopped loving her.”
“She was genuine and humble,” the Emmy winner continued, “supportive and blisteringly funny with a bawdy sense of humor that would send any rude guy looking for a place to hide.”
While Field said she “adored” Parton from the start, she admitted, “I couldn’t see then what a real giant Dolly was—not just as an artist, but as a human.”
“God bless you, Dolly Parton, my friend,” Field added. “I am not the only one on earth that will love you forever and ever.”
The moment also featured a performance from Reba McEntire who sang Parton’s 1983 track “Appalachian Memories.”
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