Sally Field Fought Back Tears As She Remembered Dolly Parton — And Revealed The Ordinary Days Together She Never Forgot

Sally Field had spent a lifetime learning how to cry on cue.

But when she was asked to remember Dolly Parton after the 2026 Emmy Awards, the challenge was suddenly the opposite.

“As an actor, you spend a whole lot of time, especially me, trying to make yourself cry,” Field told reporters. “And I was trying to make myself not cry. So, it was hard.”

Her voice and expression betrayed just how personal the loss remained.

Hours earlier, Field had stood on the Emmy stage alongside Reba McEntire to honor Parton, who died on August 25 at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer.

But backstage, away from the formal tribute, Field revealed something even more intimate: memories of two Hollywood stars shopping together, going to Walmart and becoming almost inseparable while making Steel Magnolias.

“If There Are Truly Angels On Earth…”

The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards took place Monday, September 14, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.

Alongside celebrating television’s biggest achievements, the ceremony remembered notable figures who had died.

Parton’s tribute brought together two women with deep connections to the country music legend: Field and McEntire.

Field began with a simple line.

“If there are truly angels on earth, then we just lost one.”

The actress had known Parton for decades, with their friendship stretching back to the making of the beloved 1989 film Steel Magnolias.

Life eventually took them in different directions, Field explained, but the affection never disappeared.

She told the audience she “never stopped loving her.”

Sally Remembered More Than The Superstar

Parton’s extraordinary career made her one of the most recognizable entertainers in the world.

But Field’s tribute focused just as much on the person she had known away from the spotlight.

“She was genuine and humble, supportive, and blistering funny,” Field said.

Looking back, she admitted she hadn’t fully understood at the time just how significant Parton would become.

“I couldn’t see then what a real giant Dolly was,” she said. “Not just as an artist, but as a human.”

Field also highlighted Parton’s humanitarian work, saying her contributions had made a “profound difference” to people in Tennessee and across the United States.

She ended her tribute directly addressing her old friend.

“God bless you, Dolly Parton my friend,” Field said. “I am not the only one on earth that will love you forever and ever.”

Then she handed the stage to another country music icon.

Reba McEntire Sang For Dolly

Following Field’s speech, Reba McEntire stepped forward to pay tribute through music.

McEntire performed Parton’s “Appalachian Mountains,” providing the musical centerpiece to the Emmys’ remembrance of the country legend.

For Field, however, the emotions of the evening didn’t end when she walked offstage.

After the ceremony, she appeared in the press room following her own win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

One of the first questions concerned Parton.

Field immediately became emotional.

“I Was Trying To Make Myself Not Cry”

Asked what it meant to participate in the tribute, Field reflected on the strange contradiction between her profession and what she had just experienced.

Actors spend enormous amounts of energy learning to summon emotions when a scene demands them.

That night, Field had been trying desperately to hold those same emotions back.

“As an actor, you spend a whole lot of time, especially me, trying to make yourself cry,” she explained.

“And I was trying to make myself not cry.”

The memories that followed weren’t about awards ceremonies, red carpets or famous performances.

They were about ordinary days together.

They Went Shopping And To Walmart Together

Field remembered how intensely connected actors can become while making a movie.

During Steel Magnolias, that meant spending huge amounts of time with Parton and the rest of the cast.

“I live in this acting world where you do films and you’re so bonded with this group of people,” Field said.

She compared the experience to going into battle together, where everyone depends on the people around them.

“You save each other’s lives and you got each other’s backs and you spend 24/7 with each other,” she explained.

Then came a much simpler memory.

“We would go shopping together all of us and go to the Walmart together.”

Decades later, those everyday moments were still there.

For all the extraordinary things Parton accomplished, Field remembered the woman she had simply spent her days with.

Steel Magnolias Created A Lasting Bond

Released in 1989, Steel Magnolias brought Field and Parton together as part of its celebrated ensemble.

The experience created the kind of intense friendship that can form when actors spend day after day working alongside one another.

But movies eventually end.

People return home.

Careers move in different directions.

And friendships that once involved seeing somebody almost constantly can become relationships maintained across distance and memory.

That is what happened to Field and Parton.

Field acknowledged that the two hadn’t remained in contact as much as she would have wanted.

But for her, distance never erased the bond.

“I Never Stopped” Loving Her

Field reiterated that she had never stopped loving Parton despite the years and distance between them.

And she believed that affection went both ways.

It was a poignant admission because it captured something familiar far beyond Hollywood — the experience of caring deeply for someone even when life gradually makes them less present in your everyday world.

Parton’s death left Field confronting those memories again.

Not simply Dolly Parton the country superstar.

Not the songwriter, performer or humanitarian.

But Dolly, her old castmate.

The woman she worked beside.

The woman who made her laugh.

The woman she went shopping with.

The friend she never stopped loving.

A Goodbye More Than Three Decades In The Making

Field’s Emmy speech celebrated Parton’s enormous public legacy.

Her comments backstage revealed the private one.

More than three decades after Steel Magnolias brought them together, Field could still remember the intensity of those days and the closeness of the cast.

And when she was asked to put that relationship into words after Parton’s death, decades of acting experience couldn’t make the moment any easier.

This time, Sally Field wasn’t trying to summon tears for a character.

She was trying to stop them for a friend.