Country star Reba McEntire says she has spent the past two months replaying a call she never got the chance to return. In a new interview, McEntire revealed that Dolly Parton phoned her in late July, about a month before Parton's death, and that she missed the call and was never able to reconnect.
She did call me the last of July, and I was in a meeting and I missed her call. I tried to get back in touch with her and I couldn't; never made connection.
Reba McEntire, to Entertainment Tonight
Parton died Aug. 25 in Nashville at age 80, following a private cancer diagnosis that, according to her sister Stella Parton, she had kept from some family members. McEntire said she learned the news the way much of the public did — through a phone call of her own.
My buddy called me and said, 'Dolly's gone,' I thought, 'I'll never know why she called me.'
Reba McEntire, to Entertainment Tonight
The two women's friendship stretched back decades and across genres. Parton made a guest appearance on McEntire's sitcom "Reba," the pair recorded together for a 2021 McEntire album, and in January 2026 Parton, McEntire, Miley Cyrus and Lainey Wilson reworked one of Parton's songs together for a television special. McEntire and Parton also co-hosted the CMA Awards together in 2019.
A Tribute Already Paid
McEntire has already had one public opportunity to honor her friend: she performed a Parton song at the Emmy Awards following Parton's death, a tribute that circulated widely among country and pop fans alike. The missed-call detail, first reported this week, adds a personal coda to a loss that reshaped country music's sense of its own history only a month ago.
McEntire's comments were first reported by Entertainment Tonight and confirmed in subsequent coverage. She has not said publicly whether she has any theory about what Parton wanted to discuss, and friends of both women have not offered one either.
Parton's death in August prompted tributes across genres she rarely stayed confined to, from pop and gospel to Broadway, and reopened conversations in Nashville about who inherits her outsized role as a bridge between country music and mainstream audiences. For McEntire, one of the few peers who worked alongside Parton for decades rather than simply covering her songs, the missed call has become a small, specific regret inside a much larger public loss.
