“My father could not read and write”: How Dolly Parton’s father inspired her global literacy mission that has sent 270 million books to kids across US, UK, Canada

Dolly Parton’s name is now permanently tied to a cause that was close to her heart. Dolly Parton, who grew up in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, built a philanthropic legacy that stretched far beyond her music career. Her family announced Tuesday that she had died at 80.

Her charitable work was deeply personal. Much of it was inspired by her childhood and, in particular, by watching her father, Robert Lee Parton, struggle because he never learned to read or write.

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“This actually started because my father could not read and write, and I saw how crippling that could be,” Parton said during her Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy acceptance speech in 2022. “My dad was a very smart man. And I often wondered what he could have done had he been able to read and write. So that is the inspiration," Dolly Parton had said, reports Fortune. That personal experience eventually became one of the largest children's literacy programs in the world.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library changed millions of lives

Parton’s most recognizable philanthropic effort is the Imagination Library, a program that provides free books to children from birth through their early school years. What started as a local initiative in her home county grew into an international literacy program operating across the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia.

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The program has distributed more than 270 million books in total and now sends more than 3 million books to children every month. The books are provided free to families regardless of their income.

Her father’s inability to read had left him feeling ashamed, and she wanted children to have access to books without feeling embarrassed about their circumstances.

“Daddy was a very smart man…but he was ashamed that he couldn’t read or write,” Parton told Oprah Winfrey in 2020. “That bothered him. He felt like he couldn’t learn after he was grown. I remember thinking, ‘I need to do something.’”

Dolly Parton’s philanthropy began decades ago

Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988, beginning a nearly four-decade philanthropic journey. One of her early initiatives focused on reducing high school dropout rates in her home county. The program offered $500 to seventh- and eighth-grade students who committed to finishing high school.

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The foundation eventually expanded its work through the Imagination Library and education initiatives. It also introduced a college scholarship program that offered $15,000 to high school seniors who had a dream they wanted to pursue and could explain their plans for achieving it.

The former East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville was also renamed earlier this year in honor of the country music legend, recognizing her decades of work supporting children, families, education and health care in her home state and beyond.

Her charitable work extended to health care

Education was only one part of Parton’s philanthropy. Her support for health care became particularly visible in East Tennessee. In 2007, she hosted a benefit concert that raised $500,000, while Dollywood and Parton’s Dixie Stampede each pledged another $250,000.

The fundraising brought the total raised through that effort to $1 million. When LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010, it included the 30,000-square-foot Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services.

Her connection to children's health continued for decades and ultimately led to the partnership with the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in Knoxville. Hospital leaders said the relationship would strengthen their mission of treating every child “as one of our own.”

The naming also reflected the connection between Parton and the region where she grew up.

Dolly Parton also helped communities after disasters

Parton’s philanthropy extended beyond literacy, education and medical care. After devastating wildfires struck parts of Tennessee in 2016, she launched the My People Fund, providing $1,000 a month for six months to families who had lost their homes.

She also hosted a telethon that raised more than $13 million for wildfire victims and personally donated another $8.9 million to those affected. Her disaster-relief efforts continued in later years. In 2021, Parton helped raise $700,000 for victims of flooding in Tennessee.

Her giving also reached medical research. In 2020, she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University for coronavirus research. She later gave another $1 million in 2022 to support pediatric infectious disease research.

Dolly Parton invested in the people who worked for her

Parton’s employees also became part of her broader philanthropic legacy. In 2022, the Dollywood Co. announced that it would cover 100% of tuition, fees and books for employees pursuing further education.

The program was made available to the company’s roughly 11,000 employees, giving workers an opportunity to continue their education without carrying the full financial burden themselves.

It was another example of the philosophy that ran through much of Parton’s charitable work: education could open doors that might otherwise remain closed.

Her childhood inspired her view of the world

Parton often spoke about how books allowed her to imagine a life beyond the poverty she experienced growing up in the Smoky Mountains.

“The only thing I ever saw growing up was poor people in overalls and brogan shoes and ragged clothes,” Parton told Tennessee-based literacy publication Chapter 16. “But in my books, I would read about kings and queens with their velvet clothes and big diamond rings. That’s how I knew there was a world outside the Smoky Mountains.”

That belief became central to her philanthropic legacy.

From free books and scholarships to children's hospitals, disaster relief and medical research, Parton used her success to create opportunities for others. Her estimated fortune was around $450 million as of June 2025, according to Forbes.