Has Dolly Parton, a country music hall-of-famer, passed away as of December 5, 2022? No, that's not true: Parton has been active on her verified social media accounts since the claim was published. There have also been no credible news organizations reporting her death as of December 5, 2022.
The claim appeared in an online article (archived here) on May 12, 2022. The headline was:
With heavy hearts as we report the sad news of 76-year-old singer Dolly Parton, goodbye and rest.
Here is how the publication looked at the time of writing:
(Source: news28link.com screenshot taken on Mon Dec 5 16:42:21 2022 UTC)
Underneath the "news28link" logo on the top left of the webpage, it reads, "Just another WordPress site," "sample page," and "uncategorized." The headline -- filled with grammatical errors -- and the doctored image below it are repeated multiple times with no text detailing the purported event.
A Google News search using the keywords "Dolly Parton Passed Away As Of December 5, 2022," produced no results from a credible news organization to confirm this claim.
This December 5, 2022, post on Parton's new and verified TikTok page displayed her alive and well. This same video of Parton, where she talked about one of her favorite foods in an interview, was also posted on the official TikTok page of WIRED.COM on December 4, 2022.
A November 21, 2022, press release on Dolly Parton's website stated that she would be cohosting "Miley's New Year's Eve Party" on NBC on December 31, 2022.
Lead Stories previously found this exact claim false on January 10, 2019. That fact check can be read here.
Lead Stories also reached out to the public relations agency representing Parton for a statement and will update this story if a response is received.
