Watch: Emmys 2026: Sally Field Remembers Dolly Parton Weeks After Her Death
Sally Field will always love Dolly Parton.
Several weeks after the country iconâs death from cancer at the age of 80, Field honored her Steel Magnolias costar in her first red carpet appearance since Parton’s Aug. 25 passing.
Speaking exclusively to E!’s Keltie Knight during Live From E!: 2026 Emmys on Sept. 14, the Oscar winner called the “9 to 5” singer’s death “everybody’s loss” before insisting she couldn’t pick a favorite memory of Parton throughout their nearly 40-year friendship. (See every star on the Emmys red carpet here.)
“I don’t have one,” Field confessed to Knight. “Just every minute of being with her. You can’t just have one.”
Of course, Field’s Parton tributes didn’t end there.
Later that night, she took to the Emmys stage inside Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater to lead an emotional recognition of the music legend.
“If there are truly angels on earth, then we just lost one: Dolly Parton,” Field said. “It was my great good fortune to have worked with Dolly in a film called Still Magnolias and, over the years, I never stopped loving her.”
“She was genuine and humble,” the Emmy winner continued, “supportive and blisteringly funny with a bawdy sense of humor that would send any rude guy looking for a place to hide.”
While Field said she “adored” Parton from the minute they met on the set of the 1989 film, she admitted, “I couldn’t see then what a real giant Dolly wasânot just as an artist, but as a human.”
Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
“God bless you, Dolly Parton, my friend,” Field concluded. “I am not the only one on earth that will love you forever and ever.”
LISA O’CONNOR / AFP via Getty Images
The moment also featured a performance from Reba McEntire who sang Parton’s 1983 track “Appalachian Memories.”
Plus, did you know Field actually won an Emmy during tonight’s ceremony? Keep reading to see the full list of 2026 Emmy winners.
Don’t miss the Emmy Awards 2026 live telecast tonight, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on NBC and streaming on Peacock. E!’s red carpet kicks off at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.
I had a great text to work with and I had a great costar, Lewis Pullman, and so you just do your work.
That year the Emys were canceled twice. There was a strike or something, so there was an Emmys, there wasn’t an Emmys.
Byt the time it actually happened, I wasn’t there because I was off working. I wasn’t even there, I watched it on TV and said, ‘Oh look, I won. Woohoo!’
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