Dolly Parton's Only Surviving Brother: What We Know About Robert Lee Parton Jr.

Growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee wasn't always an easy business. Fortunately, Dolly Parton had her family to lean on, and that got her through. Despite their difficult, poverty-stricken childhood, the country icon and many of her siblings turned to each other and their faith to carve out successful careers in the music industry. But not all of them chose that path. Some of them stayed out of the spotlight, and that includes Robert "Bobby" Lee Jr. With the death of Dolly's older brother Coy "Denver" Parton on July 23, 2026, at age 82, Bobby became Dolly's only surviving brother. But sadly, he found himself mourning Dolly when she died at age 80 on August 25, 2026. 

Bobby, the fifth-born Parton child and the one who arrived right after Dolly in 1948, stayed in Sevier County and led a quiet life. He married Doris Noland Parton, who had been best friends with Dolly's famous sister, Stella Parton. In her 1994 memoir "Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business," Dolly shared a few rare details about her brother and sweetly revealed how much she valued his talents — which are much different than than those that she'll be remembered for. "He's a talented developer, contractor, and builder," she wrote. She also gave him a special shout-out for playing a role in Dollywood's development, and it seems that he was much more involved in building her business empire than people might realize. "He's done wonderful work for me at the old Tennessee Mountain Home and at Dollywood. ... He also works on the producing end of a lot of my TV specials and other events that we do in East Tennessee," Dolly revealed.

It seems that Bobby definitely prefers to work behind the scenes. However, he has a daughter, Danielle Parton, who has made quite a name for herself with a public-facing job.

Danielle Parton is an airplane pilot with a whiskey business on the side. Dolly Parton's father Robert Lee — after whom Bobby Parton is named — used to make moonshine to help make ends meet, a family tradition that has been kept alive through Danielle's Shine Girl. And Dolly was right there for her niece. "She understands what it takes to build a business because she's such a working girl herself, such a hustler," Danielle told Garden & Gun in 2023. 

Danielle has a business page on Instagram that is regularly updated, and in February 2026, her dad made a rare appearance on it. In the first of a pair of photos, he was pictured seated at the bar of Danielle's Sevierville, Tennessee, distillery. In the second, he was sampling some of his daughter's product. "We had the sweetest surprise visit! Danielle's dad, Bobby Parton, stopped in ... to check on his daughter's Shine Girl — and of course to see how everything was going," the post's caption read. "There's nothing better than having family show up, support you, and cheer you on." Bobby also has a son named Clint Parton who has appeared on Danielle's Instagram page. "We are nearly Irish twins at 16 months apart," she revealed in the caption of a 2024 photo with her brother. "I'm shocked all the time that Clint was planned and I was an accident!"

The family has always been a tight bunch, so the deaths of the Parton brothers and Dolly hit them hard. Of Dolly's 11 siblings, five have died: Denver Parton, David Parton, Randy Parton, Floyd Parton, and Larry Parton. As of this writing, all of Dolly's five sisters are still around.