Reba McEntire revealed she missed a call from Dolly Parton and wasn’t able to reconnect before the country music icon died about a month later.
“She called me at the end of July, and I was in a meeting and I missed her call,” the “Fancy” singer told Entertainment Tonight in an interview shared Friday.
“I tried to get back in touch with her, but I couldn’t. I never made a connection,” she continued.
McEntire, 71, then noted that when she learned “Dolly is gone” on Aug. 25, she thought, “I’ll never know why she called me.”
However, she remains hopeful that she will “find out one day.”
Earlier this month, McEntire honored Parton at the Emmy Awards with a performance of the late singer’s song “Appalachian Memories.”
The “Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” singer wore a sparkling white dress as she delivered a moving rendition of the moving song to the accompaniment of a live symphony.
Following Parton’s death last month at the age of 80, McEntire took to social media to pay tribute to her fellow country music star and longtime friend.
“Well I just found out that my girl Dolly has crossed over to the higher and higher side,” she wrote at the time. “Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you have done for us here on earth.”
“Your love, your music and you gave so much with your huge heart,” she added. “There will never be another you. We will remember and cherish every memory and every note you played and sang.”
McEntire went on to say that Parton was “going to have a blast in heaven singing all her favorite songs with all her family and friends who came before her” and that she would “never forget” the first time they met or their last conversation.
“I carry it with love in my heart,” she said of those memories.
Elsewhere in her interview with Entertainment Tonight, McEntire called the last time she got to speak with Parton “really special” and she “didn’t want to let her go” even though she knew she was busy.
Parton’s cause of death was confirmed the same day as her death, as her representatives announced that she was secretly battling cancer.
“After courageously facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly left her earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by her loved ones,” her representatives confirmed in a statement to Page Six on Tuesday, without elaborating on the type of cancer.
Days later, Parton’s loved ones gathered at a gravesite in Nashville and the “Jolene” singer was laid to rest at Woodlawn Memorial Park and the mausoleum next to her late husband Carl Dean.
Dean died in March 2025 at the age of 82.
Parton’s sisters, Freida and Stella, responded cryptically to online rumors of a family feud following the “9 to 5” singer’s death, while Parton’s nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, was fired.
The latest Grammy winner’s longtime manager, Danny Nozell, filed a lawsuit against Seaver, alleging he tried to extort money and made death threats, but insiders told Page Six they feared Nozell “just wanted the family out of the picture.”
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