Dolly Parton.Photo: Miller Mobley/NBC
In an emotional ending to Thursday’sCall Me Kat, country iconDolly Partonmade a surprise appearance to pay tribute to late starLeslie Jordan.
Jordan, whodied at 67 in a car crashin late October, was one of the main stars of the Fox show, whichpaused productionfollowing his death to take time to grieve. Jordan played Phil, the head baker at Kat’s (Mayim Bialik) café.
After singing a verse from their song “Where the Soul Never Dies,” which was on Jordan’s 2021 albumCompany’s Comin', Parton addressed her eulogy directly to Jordan.
“I know usually at a memorial, people talkaboutsomebody. Well, I’m going to talkto you,” said the “I Will Always Love You” singer, 76. “Because there is that place on the other side, and I’m certainly going to see you there, little brother. You left a lot of people here with a lot of precious, precious memories. Everybody loved you, but I doubt many of them loved you more than I did.”
Lisa Rose/FOX
Parton continued to share how Jordan would not have wanted his loved ones to be sad after his death.
Parton’s video tribute follows a touching Instagram post from the day he died.
Before Parton’s touching monologue, the stars of the show all gathered around the table to express their regrets that Phil would not be returning to Kat’s bakery. The characters then broke the fourth wall with Griffin bringing out Jordan’s chair and starKyla Prattwrapping his bedazzled blazer around it. Bialik then went on to share how they gave Phil a happy ending, but in reality they are deeply mourning the loss of Jordan.
“He is irreplaceable. We will miss him very much,” she said. Together, the costars repeated a phrase that Jordancaptioned his last Instagram postannouncing a new song the day before he died: “Love. Light. Leslie.”
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Call Me Katairs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on Fox.
source: people.com
