Dolly Parton’s Legacy Is Her Love

May we all be so blessed by love.

Global icon and humanitarian, Dolly Parton, known to the world as a beloved singer, songwriter, philanthropist, actress, playwright, and author died peacefully today in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 80 years old.

Dolly is preceded in death by her beloved husband of 59 years… pic.twitter.com/sBdu2Ssof9

— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) August 25, 2026

And I think that’s the defining thing about Dolly that drew people to her: love. Love for her music, love for her sunny personality, and love for the love she showed everyone who crossed her path. Dolly’s father, Robert Lee Parton, never learned how to read or write. Despite that, he worked as a sharecropper and a tobacco farmer and in construction. Dolly attributed her business savvy to her dad.

He was also the inspiration for what I think is the most transformational charity to exist: the Imagination Library.

In 2018, Dolly explained why she started the program, which mailed a free book each month to a child from his birth until he turned five. That’s 60 books before a child starts kindergarten.

Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library in 1995 as a tribute to her father, who couldn’t read or write.

In 2018, she explained it was to give kids “early access to books”.

Now, over 325 million books have been gifted. pic.twitter.com/NaFrL5TeBM

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 26, 2026

“I guess everybody has their story and a lot of you may or may not know that much about me personally, but I grew up in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, and I grew up in a very large family,” she said. “There are 12 of us kids, and my dad was a very hard-working man. He grew up in a family of 14 or 15 kids and my dad never had a chance to go to school. And Daddy couldn’t read or write, but he was the smartest person that I’ve ever known.”

“So I wanted to do something special for him. As the years went by, I saw how … he thought he couldn’t learn to read after he was grown, it was just one of those things,” she continued. “You know, in the Bible, where it talks about honor your father and your mother? I don’t think that necessarily means just to obey them, I think it means to bring honor to their name if you can.”

“So I got my Daddy involved with this little program; I wanted him to feel like he was part of something special. So we started the Imagination Library, where we were giving books to the children in our home county, in Sevier County, where we were born and raised. And we hoped that it would do good there. And it became such a popular program that the Governor of Tennessee … he took it, and it went all over Tennessee. And then, later, it went on into Canada and now we’re all over the world in different parts of the world,” Dolly said.

“My dad got to live long enough to see a lot of it come into be and he took such pride in the fact that the little kids called me the ‘Book Lady.’ He was prouder of that than anything,” she added. “It started from a true place in my heart and it’s done so much good for so many people through the years.”

Education was important, too, with Parton pledging $500 to Sevier County students if they and a partner they chose both graduated from high school. That promise took the county’s dropout rate from 35 percent down to six percent.

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out…

— JOHN MACDONALD (@JOHNMACCW5) August 25, 2026

She also gave out money to families in Gatlinburg after the horrible wildfires in 2016, giving 900 families $1,000 a month for six months and an additional $5,000 because the fund raised more than expected. Starting in 2022, every Dollywood employee — full-time, part-time, and seasonal — got 100 percent of their college tuition, books, and fees covered.

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out… pic.twitter.com/jtDpiMU24M

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) August 25, 2026

She did it without fanfare. Without government intervention. With nothing but a drive to help people and, as she said, honor her parents.

But it’s the books, and the reading, that stick with me the most. Being able to read and understand what you read is the foundation to all of learning. You need it to read word problems in math, to follow steps for a science experiment, to understand historical texts. Without reading, life is hard. Dolly knew that, and that’s why she started this program.

The mother of one of the Imagination Library children shared the letter her daughter got last year with her final book.

This note in the final book from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library wrecked me last year when my daughter turned 5. Tearing up again reading it now. pic.twitter.com/ODpgsc0tCN

— Hannah Sampson (@hannahbsampson) August 25, 2026

“I hope you have a great time in school,” the letter read. “I bet your school will even have a library where you can check out books. You and all of your friends are very special. There is no limit to what you can do or how far you can go. Just remember the lessons my family taught me — dream big dreams; learn everything you can learn; and care for all those who care for you. You do all of these things and you can be anyone you want to be.”

“You are terrific, and remember … I Will Always Love You.”