Dolly Parton's Secret Time-Capsule Song Awaits 2046

The late country legend left a sealed song to be opened on what would have been her 100th birthday.

Dolly Parton, who died at 80 after what her publicist Marcel Pariseau called "a brief battle with cancer," left behind more than her vast catalogue of hits. According to ABC News, an unreleased song titled "My Place in History" remains locked inside a chestnut box at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Parton wrote and recorded the song in 2015, the year the resort opened, with instructions that the box remain sealed until January 19, 2046 — what would have marked her 100th birthday.

According to ABC News, the recording is stored on a CD, and Parton even included a CD player inside the box to ensure people would still have a way to listen to it decades later. In her 2020 book, "Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics," she joked about whether the technology would survive long enough for the plan to work. "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." Parton was 69 when she recorded the song and initially entertained the possibility she might attend the opening.

Parton also revealed which song she hoped would be part of her final farewell. According to ABC News, in a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said she wanted the country-gospel hymn "If We Never Meet Again" to be sung. The song was a favorite of her father, Lee Parton, and had also been performed at his funeral following his death in 2000. CNN reports that a small, private service will be held for her close family, and her nephew Bryan Seaver shared that Parton wanted to be laid to rest in a "beautiful bed of plush cotton."

While fans will have to wait two decades to hear the sealed recording, another of Parton's final projects will move forward much sooner. According to ABC News, "Dolly: A True Original Musical," the Broadway production based on Parton's life and career, will proceed with its previously announced schedule following her death. The production confirmed that previews will begin December 7 at the St. James Theatre in New York City, before officially opening January 19, 2027 — which would have been Parton's 81st birthday. The production said proceeding was "as was Dolly's wish."

Parton's death at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville came after a period of declining health. Yahoo reports that her death followed her announcement in May that she was canceling a Las Vegas residency set to begin in September, citing unspecified health issues. According to CNN, Parton said earlier this year that after her husband Carl Dean's death in March 2025, "I didn't take care of myself" and "let a lot of things go." She and Dean were married for nearly 60 years.

Parton's career spanned over six decades and included remarkable achievements. Her Imagination Library, which operates in five countries, has distributed more than 332 million free books to children. NBC News notes that she sold over 100 million records and that the Imagination Library was inspired by her father, who was illiterate. She also donated $1 million to help fund Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine research.