Dolly Parton, the nation music legend who died Tuesday at age 80, leaves behind a legacy that extends far past her music.
All through her life, Parton gave again by philanthropic efforts that supported childhood literacy, medical analysis and folks in want, significantly in her house state of Tennessee.
Dolly Parton performs reside for followers at Sydney Leisure Centre, Feb. 18, 2014, in Sydney, Australia.
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Parton’s dying was introduced by her publicist. No reason for dying was supplied.
One in all Parton’s philanthropic efforts was Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the book-gifting program she began in 1995.
Parton launched this system in her house county of Sevier County, Tennessee, impressed by her father, who couldn’t learn or write.
This system, which supplies free books every month to kids from delivery to age 5, no matter their household’s revenue, finally expanded throughout the U.S. and internationally.
“For those who can learn, you may self-educate your self, and also you’re simply misplaced if you cannot,” Parton instructed “Good Morning America” in 2021.
“I simply assume it is vital for youngsters to be taught to learn within the early years, to be taught to like books and all that,” she mentioned on the time.
Following Parton’s dying, the Library of Congress remembered her in a post on X as a “music legend and titan of youngsters’s literacy.”
The Library of Congress famous that Parton’s Creativeness Library obtained a number of Library Literacy Awards and that in 2018, Parton visited the library to donate this system’s 100 millionth e book to its assortment and host a narrative time.
Parton’s philanthropic efforts had been additionally remembered by present and former world leaders.
Dolly Parton performs onstage throughout MusiCares Individual of the Yr honoring Dolly Parton at Los Angeles Conference Heart, Feb. 8, 2019, in Los Angeles.
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President Donald Trump mentioned he directed American flags to be lowered for the following week, writing in a social media submit partly: “It is a true loss for tens of millions of individuals. There has by no means been anybody like her, and by no means will.”
Former President Invoice Clinton remembered Parton in a social media submit Tuesday, writing, partly: “She rose excessive from her East Tennessee roots and by no means forgot the place she got here from. And she or he at all times believed in giving again, particularly in her efforts to advertise literacy.”
Parton’s philanthropy additionally prolonged to medical analysis.
In 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt College Medical Heart to help analysis into COVID-19.
The donation created the Dolly Parton COVID-19 Analysis Fund and helped help early analysis related to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Vanderbilt later confirmed that Parton’s cash funded what a researcher described as “vital” early levels of the vaccine analysis.
Two years later, Parton donated one other $1 million to Vanderbilt College Medical Heart to support pediatric infectious illness analysis.
The donation supported analysis into infectious illnesses, antibiotic resistance, and the prognosis and therapy of infections in kids with most cancers.
“I really like kids,” Parton mentioned in a press release announcing the donation. “No little one ought to ever must undergo, and I am keen to do my half to try to maintain as a lot of them as I can as wholesome and protected as doable.”
Parton additionally stepped in to assist communities affected by pure disasters.
After devastating wildfires swept by East Tennessee in 2016, Parton established the My Folks Fund, which provided $1,000 per month for six months to households who misplaced their houses.
Years later, Parton again gave back following Hurricane Helene. In 2024, she introduced she was donating $1 million of her personal cash to reduction efforts, with one other $1 million donated by her companies.
Her a long time of charitable work earned Parton the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022.
For Parton, giving again was carefully tied to the place she got here from and the individuals she hoped to assist.
“I am simply so proud to have been part of something that is good and that is making life a bit of higher for individuals,” she instructed “GMA” in 2021.
