DOLLY PARTON: THE LEGEND, THE ICON AND THE MOTHER OF ALL THINGS GOOD

words by MAREK BARTEK

Moments like these feel slightly surreal to write about. Some people you just expect to live forever, yet the circle of life makes no exceptions, and today marks the day Dolly Parton left us at the age of 80. It was just four days ago that Dolly — it doesn’t feel right to call her by her last name for some reason — said: “I still have so many things I want to achieve.”

DOLLY PARTON on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1995, image via Getty Images

And so, as the news start to circulate about her passing, it needs to be said that beyond being the queen of country music, a queer and style icon, she was, above all, a woman with a heart made of gold. She was a fairy godmother for all those who were in need of a helping hand, a woman whose legacy will live on long after today thanks to many lives she changed for the better. 

Dolly grew up as one of twelve children in a small cabin in the mountains of East Tennessee. Her family had very little money, but their home was filled with music, stories and love — something that’s always present in her songs. Even after becoming one of the most famous women in the world, Dolly never forgot where she came from, and she gave back again and again.

DOLLY PARTON at Dollywood in 1988, photography by RON DAVIS via Getty Images

In 1988, she created the Dollywood Foundation to help children in her home county succeed in school. One of its first projects was the Buddy Program. Dolly promised local seventh- and eighth-grade students $500 if they finished high school. The dropout rate among those students reportedly fell from 35 percent to just 6 percent. She also established scholarships for students in Sevier County, helping young people continue their education and follow dreams that may otherwise have felt impossible.

Perhaps one of her biggest educational gifts began with something very simple: a book. Dolly’s father was unable to read or write, and she saw how much that affected his life. In his honour, she founded the Imagination Library in 1995. The idea was to send a free book every month to children from birth until the age of five, no matter how much money their families had. It started in her home county but spread across the United States and eventually reached children in other parts of the world, too.

Today, the Imagination Library sends around three million free books to children every month. Millions of children have grown up receiving packages addressed especially to them, discovering new characters, new worlds and, perhaps, new dreams for themselves. Of all the names Dolly collected during her life, she reportedly knew that her father was most proud of one: “The Book Lady.”

But her generosity was never limited to education. When wildfires devastated communities around her hometown in 2016, Dolly created the My People Fund. Families who had lost their primary homes received direct financial support while they tried to rebuild their lives. More than $12 million was eventually distributed through the relief effort. There was something very Dolly about the name. They were not strangers or statistics to her. They were her people. She continued to help communities affected by disasters over the years. Following Hurricane Helene in 2024, Dolly personally donated $1 million to relief efforts. Her businesses and foundation contributed another $1 million.

She also helped improve healthcare in Tennessee. In 2007, she helped raise $1 million for a new birthing unit at the hospital in Sevier County — the facility became the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services. In 2026, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital was renamed Dolly Parton Children’s Hospital following what the hospital described as a transformational gift. For Dolly, supporting the hospital was just another way to make sure children and families in her home state could receive care when they needed it most.

Her charitable spirit even played a part in the fight against COVID-19. In 2020, Dolly donated $1 million to research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. That research helped support the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. When people began calling her a hero because of it, she simply said she was happy to have done anything that might help somebody else. 

A devoted Christian, Dolly was also a longtime friend and ally of the LGBTQ+ community. At a time when offering that support could have cost her fans, especially within country music, she chose love. She spoke in support of gay people, same-sex marriage and the right of every person to be who they truly are. And while that might’ve ruffled some feathers within the religious circles, her message was extremely uncomplicated. She believed that people should not judge one another and that everyone deserved to be loved. Dolly often avoided party politics, but kindness was something she was never neutral about.

DOLLY PARTON at the Rockstar album press conference in 2023, photography by GARETH CATTERMOL via Getty Images

Of course, she leaves behind an extraordinary musical legacy. She wrote thousands of songs, sold more than 100 million records and gave the world Jolene, 9 to 5, Coat of Many Colors and I Will Always Love You.

But her life cannot be measured through record sales, awards or number-one songs alone. It can also be measured in the child who learned to love reading because a new book arrived in the mail every month. In the student who stayed in school. In the family that received help after losing its home. In the patient who benefited from medical research. In the queer person who saw one of the world’s biggest stars look at them with acceptance instead of judgment.

Dolly Parton understood that success means very little if you do not use it to lift somebody else up. She gave people music when they needed comfort, laughter when life felt too heavy and help when words were not enough. She proved that glamour and goodness could exist together — and that a woman wearing rhinestones, high heels and a towering blonde wig could also be one of the most powerful forces for goodwill in the world.

Dolly may not have achieved everything she still wanted to but she achieved more for others than most could accomplish in several lifetimes. The legend is gone but the songs, the books, the opportunities and the love she left behind are not.

Rest in peace, Dolly. The world was better with you in it, and it will remain better because you were here.