Beloved country-music icon Dolly Parton devoted decades of her life to philanthropy and other charity work — part of a touching nod to her roots growing up in poverty in Appalachia.
Parton, who died at age 80 on Tuesday, opened her Dollywood theme park in Tennessee in 1986 as both a show of pride in her background and a desire to give back to the community.
The theme park is the largest employer in Sevier County, creating more than 23,000 jobs there and generating around $1.8 billion annually for the region, according to a 2021 economic impact study.
“I love the fact that I am able to give something back and provide so many people with jobs where none existed before,” Parton wrote in her 1994 memoir “Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business.”
“The theme park is much more about the mountains and the culture of the people who live there than it is about Dolly Parton,” said the singer, song-writer and actress — who grew up with her 11 siblings and parents in a home with no electricity or running water.
“Dolly Parton simply happens to be the most famous hillbilly from those particular hills,” she wrote.
Parton joked that the park’s name came from a playful fantasy she had — sparked by a visit to California early in her career.
“When I first saw the Hollywood sign, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could change that H to a D and make it Dollywood?’ ” she wrote.
The theme park’s revenues directly fund and support the administrative costs of the Dollywood Foundation, too.
The “Jolene” singer set up her Dollywood Foundation in 1988, inspired by her poor upbringing in rural east Tennessee.
As her father was unable to read or write, her charitable work focused heavily on education, literacy, and healthcare, as well as local disaster relief.
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Since its inception, the Dollywood Foundation’s signature Imagination Library program has sent more than 270 million free books to kids across the world, according to Time — which named Parton one of the top philanthropists of the past century in a 2025 feature.
Parton’s family Tuesday asked that in lieu of flowers, fans make donations to the Imagination Library.
Early in the history of her foundation, Parton set up the Buddy Program, pledging $500 to every seventh- and eighth-grader in Sevier County who completed high school.
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Her efforts were credited with helping to lower the local dropout rate from 35% to 6%.
She was also a major donor to COVID-19 vaccine research, giving $1 million to Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center for the development of the Moderna vaccine.
Separately, Parton funded pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt.
A wildlife lover, Parton also partnered with the American Eagle Foundation to set up the Eagle Mountain Sanctuary at Dollywood, which houses the US’s largest exhibit of non-releasable bald eagles and supports eagle rehabilitation projects.
In 2016, she created the My People Fund in response to devastating wildfires that ravaged her hometown of Sevier County.
Parton gave $1,000 per month for six months to families who lost their homes in the fires, with relief donations eventually hitting $12.5 million.
In recognition of her decades of generosity, she was awarded the prestigious Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022.
In October 2024, she also partnered with the Mountain Ways Foundation to give $1 million to flood victims affected by Hurricane Helene in east Tennessee.
