After Nearly Fifty Years Of Friendship, Reba Was Left With One Unanswered Question From The Woman She Had Loved And Admired Since Their First Meeting
There is one small detail in Reba McEntire’s memories of Dolly Parton that may be more heartbreaking than any grand farewell. In late July 2026, only weeks before Dolly’s death, Dolly called Reba while Reba was in a meeting. She missed the call. Reba tried to call her back, but their schedules never allowed them to reconnect. Then, on the morning of August 25, Reba received the devastating news that her longtime friend was gone. “I’ll never know why she called me,” Reba later told Entertainment Tonight. Then came the sentence that made the story even more emotional: “I’ll find out one day.”
For Reba, this was not simply the missed call of two busy entertainers. Her relationship with Dolly stretched back to September 17, 1977, when Reba was making her Grand Ole Opry debut. She had been scheduled to sing two songs that night, but Dolly had unexpectedly arrived at the Opry, and one of Reba’s songs had to be cut. Reba has remembered that moment with remarkable affection. Rather than being upset, she told them they could take both songs if it meant she could meet Dolly. When she finally saw Dolly walking backstage in a beautiful black chiffon outfit decorated with rhinestone butterflies, Reba remembered thinking that she looked “just like an angel.” It was the beginning of a friendship that would survive changing careers, decades of country music and the enormous demands of fame.
Their relationship grew far beyond professional admiration. Dolly appeared on Reba’s sitcom in 2005, and in 2019, the two stood together at the center of the CMA Awards alongside Carrie Underwood, representing different generations of women who had helped define country music. They also recorded together, including a stripped down version of Reba’s “Does He Love You” in 2021. But perhaps the most revealing part of Reba’s recent memories is not one of those famous performances. It is what she said about their final conversation. Reba explained that it had taken them a long time to finally connect because of their schedules, but once they did, the conversation felt special. She knew Dolly was busy, yet she did not want to be the one to end the call. “I didn’t want to let her go,” she said.
That makes the unanswered phone call from late July especially painful. Reba had already spoken with Dolly one final time, and she treasured that conversation. But then Dolly reached out again. Whatever she wanted to say remains unknown. There was no opportunity for Reba to hear her voice again, no chance to ask why she had called, no final explanation waiting on the other end of the telephone. That uncertainty is what gives Reba’s words, “I’ll find out one day,” such extraordinary emotional weight. It was not an attempt to explain away the loss. It was Reba admitting that there is one tiny piece of their story she will carry with her for the rest of her life.
When Dolly died at 80 on August 25, 2026, after a brief battle with cancer, Reba publicly described her as her “buddy Dolly” and thanked her for the love, music and generosity she had given to the world. She wrote that there would never be another Dolly and that she would cherish every memory and every note Dolly had played and sung. She also specifically said she would never forget their first meeting or their final conversation, holding both memories with love in her heart. Days later, at the 2026 Emmy Awards on September 14, Reba honored Dolly by performing “Appalachian Memories,” Dolly’s 1983 song, turning the performance into something much more personal than a conventional tribute.
There is something profoundly human about the fact that two women who had spent almost 50 years knowing one another could still be separated by something as ordinary as a meeting and a missed telephone call. Dolly had spent her life making enormous moments seem intimate, while Reba had spent hers turning personal stories into songs that millions could recognize as their own. Yet in the end, their friendship came down to something very simple: two friends trying to find time to talk. One call was answered. Another was missed. And suddenly the ordinary became permanent.
Perhaps that is why Reba’s final words about Dolly are so much more affecting than a polished farewell could ever be. She does not pretend to know what Dolly wanted. She does not invent an explanation. She simply leaves the question open, trusting that someday she will have the answer. For nearly five decades, Dolly Parton was Reba McEntire’s friend, mentor, fellow performer and “buddy.” Now she is also the person whose final unanswered call has become one more memory Reba will carry with her. And somewhere beyond all the stages, television studios and Nashville dressing rooms they once shared, Reba still holds onto the hope that one day, somehow, she will finally find out why Dolly called.