Davidson County

On August 25, 2026, we said goodbye to Dolly Parton. 🕯️ Her father could neither read nor write. His daughter gave away 332 million books. 🤍 🏔️ Dolly Parton was born on January 19, 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee, the fourth of 12 children. The family lived on Locust Ridge in a cabin with 2 rooms, deep in the Smoky Mountains. Her father was a farmer and day laborer and never learned to read. 🧵 Her mother sewed her a coat from scraps. At school, the other children laughed at her. That coat became her song Coat of Many Colors. 🎸 In 1964, the day after finishing school, Dolly Parton went to Nashville - no money, no contract. In 1966 she founded the music publisher Owe-Par with her uncle - the rights to her songs stayed hers. She wrote over 3,000 songs: Jolene, 9 to 5, I Will Always Love You. 📚 In 1995, Dolly Parton founded the Imagination Library: every enrolled child gets a book mailed home every month, from birth to kindergarten. Free, no matter what the parents earn. She did it for her father - the children called her the Book Lady. What remains: • The music publisher at 20, with her uncle - the rights stayed hers • Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, since May 3, 1986: jobs for her own valley • The Imagination Library since 1995: over 332 million books in 5 countries • Over 3.5 million books that go out to children every month • The My People Fund after the Sevier County fires in 2016: 900 families, 1,000 dollars a month for six months • A fund for children with cancer at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville - her niece got leukemia at age 4 and was cured there The books keep coming. Every month. Thank you, Dolly Parton. Forever remembered. 🕯️ 📷 Curtis Hilbun (CC BY 3.0) · Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com (CC BY-SA 2.0) · John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Eva Rinaldi (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times (CC BY 4.0) · DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby, U.S. Air Force. (Released), public domain 🎬 KIND MUSIC GROUP (CC BY 3.0) · Backgrounds: Pexels 🎵 Dvořák, String Quartet No. 10 (Romanza) - Musopen String Quartet, public domain ℹ️ This video is therefore itself licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.