I remember the first time my grandmother read me a story and the world that opened up beyond my little eyes. I also remember how soon after this event I decided that I wanted to be a teacher like her.

I was somewhere around two years old, maybe three…. I certainly had no idea who Dolly Parton was—that would come much later in life and by then, she was the butt of many jokes in my household as all my father could see was an outspoken woman with big breasts—but I remember when I first heard of her Imagination Library, a non-profit organization that worked to get books into the hands of children. Not a particular child but ANY child. 

See, Dolly believed that EVERYONE was worthy of love and kindness, and that EVERYONE deserved to read.

By this point in time, I was already a teacher. I’d seen the absolute joy that came when I taught kids how to read, especially kids who were in middle school and should’ve known how but didn’t. The idea that it wasn’t too late and that they, too, could be a part of the world, mattered.They were much like Dolly’s father who told her as a kid that he never learned how. They truly believed it was too late, but it wasn’t.

I’d also seen the joy that comes when a kid thinks they hate reading but discovers that with the right book, they love it. I began and ended my teaching career with the strong belief that anyone can learn to read and that anyone can learn to enjoy it. This belief is similar to the one Dolly held and it, along with her father’s illiteracy, is why she began her organization. 

332,000,000.

That’s how many books her organization has given to children to date. Kids all over the world who were given the gift of the imagination. That’s millions of worlds discovered, worlds filled with unicorns and superheroes, space ships and dinosaurs.

People like Mr. Rogers, Levar Burton, and Dolly Parton—the helpers as Mr. Rogers put it—make this world a much better place. Dolly believed in God fiercely, but unlike most Christians I meet, she loved everyone without judgement. It didn’t matter if you were white or black, poor or rich, queer or straight, literate or illiterate—she loved and accepted you wholeheartedly for who you were. No questions asked.

She believed in being kind before anything else, and her death has shaken me because a great light is now missing from this planet. I’m not a school teacher anymore, but I do my best to teach others the joys of writing. I do my best to spread the love of reading through our little free library. Helping others find joy in a book is my reason for living. It’s why I taught and it’s certainly why I became a writer.

Many country music fans are mourning a woman who sang and wrote a good number of hits, but I’m grieving the loss of someone greater. Someone who truly lived as she believed and used her money to help countless people. 

Besides helping kids read, here are some other things you might not have known about Dolly:

• Dolly donated a ton of money towards research for the COVID vaccine and saved a ton of lives in doing so
• Donated $12.5 million to the people of Sevier County after a wildfire destroyed a town and many homes & businesses
• Invested the royalties from Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” back into the black community
• When Texas tried to ban drag queens, Dolly sent the drag queen who sued the state a signed, bejeweled guitar and her support
• She supported Ukraine and queer people
• Produced the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is a fav of mine

She also “ruined” Valentine’s Day for Reagan because she smoked pot in the movie 9 to 5. That makes me giggle. Good on her!

I began my morning by thinking that the grim reaper had taken the wrong 80 year old, but I know Dolly wouldn’t want me to think that. It gives no blessing to her memory to think that way, and so I’ve pushed that thought from my mind. I decided to write this instead to remember the good that she put out into the world.

If ever there was a helper to look to, it was Dolly Parton.