Country music star, businesswoman, and philanthropist Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at the age of 80, according to a report published August 26. She was recognized as one of the top charitable donors in the music industry, having founded the Dollywood Foundation in 1988 to support education and children in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she was raised.
Through the Dollywood Foundation, Parton established the Imagination Library in 1995. The program provides one book every month to children from birth until age five to encourage literacy. Originally launched in Sevier County, the program expanded to cover Tennessee, the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, and Ireland, and has distributed nearly 305 million books to date.
Parton also made significant personal donations to various causes. In 2024, she gave $1 million to the Boys & Girls Club of the Smoky Mountains in Kodak, Tennessee, and $1 million to Mountain Ways to assist residents of eastern Tennessee following Hurricane Helene floods. Her previous philanthropic efforts included $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2020 to support COVID-19 research and another $1 million in 2022 for pediatric infectious-disease research.
In 2024, Parton's enterprises, including Dollywood Parks and Resorts, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, and Pirates Voyage Dinner and Show, were directed to match her personal $1 million gift to Mountain Ways with an additional $1 million.
Parton's philanthropic work was deeply influenced by her childhood in Pittman Center, Tennessee, where her family struggled with poverty. Her wealth, which Forbes estimated at approximately $450 million last year, was largely tied to her 50 percent ownership stake in the Dollywood Company. While she was a visible spokeswoman for the Dollywood Foundation, she often kept the details of her private donations confidential.
