Carly Pearce Recalls Meeting Dolly Parton at Dollywood at 16

Country singer Carly Pearce says she was just 16 years old, performing in Dollywood's Country Crossroads show, when she first met Dolly Parton.

"I remember just staring at her because I couldn't believe she was real," Pearce told "CBS Mornings" on Wednesday. "She's exactly what everybody wants her to be in real life," she added.

Parton died Tuesday at a Nashville hospital, her team said in a statement. She was 80.

Pearce had taken part in a show honoring Parton with the Academy of Country Music's Poet's Award just last Wednesday, singing "9 to 5" in tribute. Parton recorded a video message for the occasion thanking the academy and saying, "Songwriting has always been the most important part of who I am creatively."

"I never thought of a world where she wouldn't be here," Pearce said. "It just feels not real to me. I was so saddened. We had just honored her at the ACM Honors this past week... So it was just a really crazy thing."

Parton owned the publishing rights to all of her music, a business decision that generated millions of dollars, including from Whitney Houston's recording of "I Will Always Love You." She also turned a local Tennessee theme park she purchased in the 1980s into Dollywood, where Pearce would later work as a teenager.

Country singer Lauren Alaina told "CBS Mornings" she had asked Parton for business advice several times. "I asked her her best advice for me, and she said, 'Never put the career first. Put God first, then your family, then the career.' And she said, 'It's really worked for me,'" Alaina said.

Pearce reflected on Parton's enduring drive even in her final years. "You think about that she was 80, and for decades she continued to raise the bar," Pearce said. "Look at everything she's got going on right now — a musical, a new hotel in Nashville, her travel gas station in Tennessee. I mean, the woman never stopped."