The Life of Country Music Icon Dolly Parton

In 1995, she launched Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee. The program was inspired partly by her father’s inability to read and write, and it was designed to send free books to children from birth to age five.

The project began close to home, but its purpose was much larger than local charity. It connected her family history to children’s literacy, and what started in one Tennessee county would eventually grow far beyond the Smoky Mountains.