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. 

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. Aside from that, very little is known about him. However, he has a daughter, Danielle Parton, who has made quite a name for herself and is pretty close to her aunt Dolly, showing that the "Jolene" singer has maintained a tight relationship with Bobby and his family.

Danielle is an airplane pilot with a whiskey business on the side. Dolly's father Robert Lee — after whom Bobby 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 has been 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. The family has always been a tight bunch, so the deaths of the Parton brothers have hit them hard.

Of Dolly Parton's 11 siblings, five have died. Just a little over a year and a half before Denver Parton's death, the family lost David Parton, also at age 82. "My brother David passed away peacefully this morning. It's never easy to say goodbye to a loved one but he got his angel wings and is now at peace," Stella Parton wrote on X on November 15, 2024. Just a few days after Dolly's birthday in January 2021, Randy Parton died from cancer at 67.

Dolly, who had often worked with Randy, shared the news on Facebook. "The family and I are grieving his loss but we know he is in a better place than we are at this time. We are a family of faith and we believe that he is safe with God," she wrote in part. Two years before, Floyd Parton died at 61. Floyd had also been a frequent collaborator of Dolly. "He lived a short life of love and beautiful songs," she told People in December 2018.

While Dolly was raised with five brothers, she also had a sixth one whom she unfortunately didn't get to see grow up. Larry Parton died at just four days old in July 1955. Dolly was 9, and the death hit her hard because she was the one supposed to help with Larry. "Since there were so many of us, [my mother] used to say, 'This one is gonna be you[r] baby.' ... This particular baby that passed away ... was my baby," she told Fox News in 2015. As of this writing, all of Dolly's five sisters are still around.