Kelley Mathews
My Mountains, My People
Dolly Parton’s philanthropy knows no bounds. Dolly is all about giving back to her community, and that story only begins with Dollywood. Dolly famously grew up poor, the fourth of twelve children in Sevierville, Tennessee. Because her father could not read or write, he took great pride in Dolly’s Imagination Library, a project she started to promote literacy by sending children from birth to five years old one book a month.
And Dolly’s Imagination Library expanded far beyond East Tennessee. According to the Dollywood Foundation, the organization has now delivered more than 150,000,000 books to children in participating communities around the world. Dolly always credits her father with the fact that children know her as “The Book Lady.”
But Dolly’s philanthropy doesn’t end there. In 2016, wildfires ravaged the Smoky Mountains, destroying hundreds of Sevier County homes and killing fourteen people. Dolly Parton stepped in immediately, hosting a telethon that raised more than $9M and gifting each homeless family $1,000/month for six months to help them get back on their feet. And just last year, she donated more than $1M to Covid-19 vaccine research, while also reading bedtime stories to children, writing and recording comforting songs like When Life Is Good Again, and releasing a joyful Christmas album titled Holly Dolly Christmas.
Tie Our Love in a Double Knot
Who knew a celebrity marriage could actually stand the test of time? True love sparked Dolly’s first day in Nashville, when she met Carl Dean at the Wishy Washy Laundromat. Two years later they eloped to avoid upsetting Dolly’s new record label, who thought she’d find more success single. Parton and Dean have been married fifty-four years. They never had children, though Dolly has said she “probably would have given up my dreams for that.” But she claims her songs as her children, adding “and I expect them to take care of me when I’m old.”
Dean rarely appears in public, and Dolly credits time apart with making the marriage work. She said they travel around Tennessee “in a little camper” together, stopping to see the sights and picnic on her home cooking. For their 50th anniversary, they chose to renew their vows, prompting Dean to dub Dolly his second wife.
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