Kory Grow
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Richie Owens and Dolly Parton. Steve Thorne/Redferns/Getty Images; Jason Kempin/Getty Images Dolly Parton kept her cancer battle to herself so everybody could focus on happier things, her cousin says. “She always kept things private because she always wanted to keep everybody being positive around her and put that out there in the world,” her first cousin Richie Owens told Today. “Just, ‘Don’t worry about me, I’m going to be fine.’ Just show the love.”
Owens, who co-wrote songs with Parton in the mid-Sixties and produced her Hungry Again (1998) and Precious Memories (1999) albums, said Parton even kept her diagnosis from family members. “She of course posted herself that she had been going through health problems, but no one really knew what a lot of that was, including myself,” he said.
He also discussed Parton’s funeral, the details of which had previously been kept vague, according to her wishes. “She wanted to keep it very quiet,” Owens said. “The word keeps getting brought up, ‘funeral,’ and I don’t believe that was really the case in this situation. It was a burial, to be buried beside her husband.” Parton was buried next to her husband, Carl Dean, who died last year, a few days after her death on Aug. 28. The occasion was small, with only a few family members in attendance. “It was very quiet, very quickly done, and not for any bad reasons whatsoever, it’s just that’s what she wanted,” Owens said. “She wanted to keep it very, very private.”
