In Narromine – redubbed ‘Dollymine’ for the weekend – the country music star’s face is everywhere and a warm spirit of inclusivity is all-embracing

On a sporting oval in a rural Australian town 15,000km from Knoxville, Tennessee, dozens of Dolly Partons saunter down the runway as a boisterous crowd cheers and swats away flies with their cowboy hats.

As the sun begins to set, Jim Beams are flowing and music is blaring. One lucky punter is about to be crowned this year’s best-dressed Dolly, complete with sash, trophy and bragging rights.

The Narromine Line Dancers chat before performing for the crowd

Court filing alleges Bryan Seaver, star’s ex-security head, had also posted no trespassing signs to thwart serving of lawsuit

Dolly Parton’s estate has alleged that her nephew and former security head used barbed wire and a no trespassing sign to avoid being served in a lawsuit, according to a court filing confirmed by the Guardian.

The country star’s company has filed suit against her nephew, Bryan Seaver, claiming that he menaced and attempted to strong-arm Parton’s estate after she died on 25 August. Seaver announced Parton’s death in a video and previously said this was “something Dolly asked of me years ago”.

Late Queen of Country and philanthropist celebrated with parades, karaoke and live music across the country

Cities and states across the country are declaring 25 September Dolly Parton Day, month after the Queen of Country died at age 80.

The date, 9/25, is a tribute to Parton’s popular single, 9 to 5.

Irish rock legends’ 16th studio album, described by the Edge as ‘a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs’, to arrive in November

U2 have officially announced their first album of new material in nearly a decade, entitled Carnaval de Luz, to be released on 13 November.

Closing out the album’s 12 tracks is Torn, the final recorded performance by Dolly Parton, who duets with Bono on a song described in press materials as “a tender country song detailing broken family ties, that holds wider resonances”. Parton died aged 80 on 25 August.

Bryan Seaver, who announced Parton’s death to the world, is alleged to have intimidated her manager and others, which he denies

The estate of the late Dolly Parton is involved in a dispute with the country star’s nephew and former head of security, and has filed for a restraining order against him amid allegations of threats.

Bryan Seaver was responsible for Parton’s security, and was tasked with announcing her death on 25 August with a video, “something Dolly asked of me years ago”, he said.

The city’s mayor and Tennessee’s governor threw their support behind the name change last month

The Nashville airport is to be renamed after Dolly Parton, a board of commissioners voted on Friday, in tribute to the Smoky Mountain singer who is estimated to bring $1.8bn each year to Tennessee through her Dollywood theme park.

The decision ensures that Parton, who died last month at 80 years old, will be memorialized with her name on an airport, although the renaming process will take time to complete.

The queen of country was interred next to her late husband in an intimate ceremony attended by close family

Dolly Parton was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Nashville on Friday, her family has confirmed.

The queen of country music, who died aged 80 on 25 August “after bravely facing a brief battle with cancer”, was interred at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum alongside her husband of 60 years, Carl Thomas.

Bill Lee says he favors proposal to rename Nashville’s international airport after legendary country singer

Bill Lee, the Tennessee governor, on Friday said he favored a proposal to rename Nashville’s international airport after legendary country singer Dolly Parton, who died three days earlier at age 80.

In a statement, Lee said he and the managers of the airport in Tennessee’s capital city – where Parton resided – wanted to create “a lasting tribute to her indelible legacy and the generations of people she inspired”. He said he had spoken previously to the 11-time Grammy winner and her team, who were “touched by the idea”.

Country music fans use the Long Road festival in Leicestershire to mark the passing of Dolly Parton

Country star came to South Yorkshire town in 2007 for UK launch of the Imagination Library, her book donation scheme

Shane Jarman was up a ladder decorating a Christmas tree at the school where he was deputy headteacher when he got a call asking him to come to Rotherham hospital ASAP. It was December 2007 and Jarman’s wife, Claire, had given birth the previous day to their first child, a girl called Emma, so of course he rushed to the phone. All was well, he was told, but that “everything would become clear” when he got to the hospital.

Once there, his wife told him – somewhat unexpectedly – that they were going to meet Dolly Parton. “And literally within what felt like five minutes,” he recalled, “there were great camera flashes, lots of noise, lots of clicking and in walked this real big bundle of energy.”

Ignore Iran, the Epstein files, and your wallet – not to mention Trump’s plummeting approval ratings

Don’t mention the war! Or the economy, for that matter. Or the Epstein files. Or Natalie Harp. Or “affordability”, which, as Donald Trump recently said at a rally, is a word that was “never used” by the media before he took office. Best not to talk about anything that affects ordinary people or embarrasses the president, really. Instead, let’s all rejoice in Trump’s latest triumph: renaming Lake Ontario, which is shared by Canada and the US, as Lake America.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to America-fy the lake’s name on US maps and documents, which is an excellent use of time and resources. I suppose we can at least be thankful that the president, who is trying to slap his own name on everything from airports to the Kennedy Center, didn’t decree that the body of water be called Lake Trump.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Terrified of being seen as a loser, Donald Trump is nonsensically lashing out – even against our old friend Canada

I’m still grieving Dolly Parton. I never met her and always wanted to. She was almost exactly my age and my height and had values I deeply admired. Her death leaves a hole in the firmament.

Which brings me to the person whose values are as far from Dolly Parton’s as any human could possibly be and still claim to be human. I’m referring, of course, to the current occupant of the Oval Office.

‘My sister was always thinking of others,’ Parton’s younger sister Stella wrote in a Facebook tribute

Dolly Parton’s younger sister Stella Parton has shared a moving tribute to the late country music singer on Thursday, revealing that Dolly offered to receive experimental cancer drugs “in the hope of helping others in the future” – an act of kindness and generosity that extended until the end of her life.

“My sister was one of the most generous, thoughtful and kind people I’ve ever known,” Stella wrote in a tribute shared on Facebook on Thursday. “What the world saw is exactly who she was.”

Across six decades, the late country singer and pop culture icon turned self‑presentation into a flamboyant art form

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Dolly Parton may have had a record 25 US country No 1 singles, released 66 studio albums and earned six Golden Globe nominations, among many other achievements, but the Tennessee-born star also had an incredible number of fashion moments. “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap”, she famously quipped when asked about her style. As we bid her farewell, six Guardian writers reflect on their favourite Dolly looks.

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From quiet acts of generosity and life-changing gigs to singing for a professional puppeteer, Dolly Parton has had a profound impact on readers’ lives
• Photo gallery: fans pay tribute to Dolly Parton

I had the opportunity to meet her when I volunteered to work the Country Music Awards in the late 70s. Me and three other kids had Dolly all to ourselves for about 20 minutes. I remember with disbelief how she took several unhurried minutes with each of us and gave us her undivided attention for that time. She had no reason to do this. She was just as genuine as they come. Her philanthropy was exceptional. Her talent speaks for itself. I miss her already. Larry Lipman, Tennessee

A memorial at the park’s entrance held bouquets, and a child asked his mothers why so many people were crying

Becky Bullard was en route home to Austin, Texas, when she heard the news.

“As soon as I heard about Dolly, I thought of you,” read a text from a close friend while she waited for her flight home from Albany, New York.

One autumn day in 2023 I bathed in the luminous glow of this utterly authentic star – and while she did have one weak spot, her life and music will speak for themselves

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The great privilege of my kind of journalism is to get the chance to meet extraordinary people – some famous, many not – and very occasionally that person is beyond extraordinary. Dolly Parton, you may not be surprised to learn, was one of them. I’ve only come across it a handful of times. It has nothing to do with extreme fame – I’ve met plenty of A-listers who are dead behind the eyes. It’s not charm or extroversion either, nor beauty, and it’s not what we’d call “star quality” because it’s less showy than that. It’s almost indescribable, but “luminous” probably comes closest. I think it’s partly innate – God-given, Parton might have said – but it also comes from living with humility, gratitude and humour. Parton was luminous, and it wasn’t just the rhinestones.

The cliche that you should never meet your heroes because you’ll only be disappointed only stands if you think famous people have somehow transcended the deep character flaws that make the rest of us human. Everyone has off days, or off years. Still, I’d been slightly dreading interviewing Parton. The machinery that surrounds a superstar interview – the holding rooms, the allotted time slots, the officious publicists – is designed to be intimidating, and it was all present on that autumn day in 2023. And then it was just Parton and me in a London hotel room, borderline uncomfortably close on a sofa, but unusually, no publicist sitting in, taking notes.