In 2024, Dolly Parton received the PEACE Through Music Award, recognizing her longstanding efforts to use music and philanthropy to promote peace and connection.
In accepting the award, Parton reflected on what she believes people share across political and cultural divides:
“Is that not what we’re all looking for: a little peace? We all want it. Some of us, all around this old world, can only dream about it. But as people, we all deserve it.”
Throughout her life and career, the 10-time Grammy Award-winning artist put that philosophy into practice through philanthropy, education, healthcare, and her public advocacy for treating others with dignity. On Tuesday, she died at the age of 80.
Here are nine ways she made an impact:
1. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library
Parton founded the Imagination Library, a children’s literacy program, in 1995 in honor of her father, Robert Lee Parton Sr. A sharecropper and father of 12, she said her father was one of the wisest men she’s ever known, but his inability to read or write probably kept him from seeing all his dreams come true.
The Library is dedicated to “inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five” throughout the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia. As of June 2026, the Imagination Library had gifted over 325 MILLION books to children around the world.
But the program has also become caught up in broader political debates over state funding for public programs or faced challenges due to wider funding cuts, including in Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Maine.
2. The Dollywood Foundation
Parton founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to encourage children in her home of Sevier County, Tennessee, to achieve educational success. Efforts included the Buddy Program, through which Parton promised every 7th- and 8th-grade student in the early 1990s that she would personally give them $500 if they graduated high school. The dropout rate among these students fell from 35% to 6%.
The foundation also supports students through scholarships and other programs.