Dolly Parton Built This For the Father Who Couldn't Read

Robert Lee Parton never learned to read or write. His daughter Dolly turned that one fact into a program that has mailed hundreds of millions of free books to children around the world.

The Man Who Never Learned to Read

Dolly Parton was born in 1946 in a one-room cabin in Sevier County, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children. Her father, Robert Lee Parton, farmed tobacco and worked construction jobs in the mountains of East Tennessee to support the family.

He never learned to read or write. Parton often said he was still one of the smartest people she ever knew.

"He was the smartest man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams," Parton said.

Her father died in 2000. Parton has said the barrier he faced was the reason she built the Imagination Library in the first place.

A Book a Month, Birth to Age Five

In 1995, Parton founded the Imagination Library through her Dollywood Foundation. It started small: one free book a month, mailed to every child in Sevier County from the day they were born until they started kindergarten.

A child enrolled from birth receives 60 books by the time they turn five, each one addressed to them personally.

The program spread across Tennessee, then the rest of the United States, then internationally to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. More than 1,800 local communities now take part.

By the early 2000s, children in her home county had started calling her "the Book Lady," a nickname she carried for the rest of her life.

The program now mails more than 3 million free books every month. It has gifted over 300 million books in total since it began.

A Book for the Library of Congress

On February 27, 2018, the Imagination Library reached its 100 millionth book. The Library of Congress marked the occasion with a special event in Washington, D.C., where Parton donated a copy and read to children who attended.

The Books Keep Going Out

Dolly Parton died on August 25, 2026, at 80, following a brief battle with cancer. Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced her death.

The Imagination Library is run through the Dollywood Foundation, not by Parton alone, so the mailings continue on their existing monthly schedule.

Somewhere this month, in five countries, a child who has never heard of Dolly Parton will open a mailbox and find a free book with her name on it.

Photos: Dolly Parton, 1984, by Alan Light via Flickr / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0; Dolly Parton at the Liseberg Applause Award, 2010, by Curtis Hilbun / Dollywood via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0; Library of Congress, 2018, photo by Shawn Miller (public domain).