25 September Is Officially Dolly Parton Day
Image: Dolly Parton / Wikimedia Commons
Dolly Parton has just scored her own holiday, with California and dozens of municipalities and across the United States declaring 25 September ‘Dolly Parton Day’. The date is a playful nod to the queen of country’s celebrated hit “9 to 5”, whose title bears phonetic similarity to ‘09/25’.
While California is the first state to officially establish 25 September as Dolly Parton Day, Tennessee, Parton’s home state, already celebrates the holiday on Parton’s birthday: 19 January. Despite this, Nashville and other local governments across Tennessee have since joined the movement to declare 25 September Dolly Parton Day.
“We could all afford to live a little more like Dolly,” California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the Senate Bill into law, said in a statement. “Be kind, be humble, and have some fun…Be a diamond in a rhinestone world.”
“With this bill, we are not just establishing a day to celebrate Dolly Parton, we are creating an annual reminder to us, every year, to live the way she did — joyfully, graciously, and with a whole lot of heart.”
Dolly Parton’s Philanthropy Remembered
Indeed, proponents of Dolly Parton day are not simply seeking to honour Parton’s laureled music career, but also her extensive philanthropy, including her Imagination Library, which has donated over 330 million books to children worldwide.
Venues across California, including Micky’s WeHo, one of Hollywood’s oldest and most iconic gay bars in Los Angeles, have revamped their 25 September offerings to honour Parton’s legacy.
About Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton, passed away on 25 August 2026. The recipient of 11 Grammys and a Prime Time Emmy Award, Parton is remembered for her warm, vibrant personality, generous philanthropy, and, of course, her timeless hits in “Jolene,” and “I Will Always Love You,” among many others. The Tennessee-born singer rose to fame in the 1970s, blending country and pop styles and writing over 3,000 songs over seven decades.
Alongside revolutionising country music, the honorary drag queen is especially remembered by the queer community for her unrelenting LGBTQ+ allyship. Over the course of her career, Parton celebrated her drag impersonators, vocalised her support for trans rights, and even publicly endorsed the “yes” vote during Australia’s same-sex marriage plebiscite.
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