There were few things as easy to agree on as the inherent goodness of Dolly Parton. When she died Aug. 25 at 80 years old after a brief battle with cancer, the collective grief felt across the world stretched from the tops of skyscrapers to the bottoms of valleys. Parton’s legacy, not only as a musician and entertainer but as a life-changing philanthropist, will continue to shape America for years to come.
What will ultimately be remembered about Parton, however, is her kindness and hope. Her discography is full of stories of resilience, often sounding like a love letter to her family, to her home in Appalachian Tennessee and to the insurmountable compassion she saw in humanity.
Popular songs such as “Coat of Many Colors” exemplify this; the 1974 folk ballad about Parton’s impoverished childhood does not dwell on false stereotypes of backwards customs in the Appalachian mountains. Instead, she sang about how her mother’s love for her and her family made them rich.
This theme of love being wealth flows throughout Parton’s music. In “Poor Folks Town,” she builds on the autobiographical “Coat of Many Colors” by emphasizing her hometown’s richness, a wealth she defines as happiness, family and community. In other songs, like “God’s Coloring Book,” she defines richness in both the natural world and in the blessings of the small details in life.
Parton’s musical landscape, rolling hills of radiant kindness, is a vision of America that feels deeply alien to the America we live in now. For Parton, though, this America never stopped existing. The world her songs create is not a utopian mirror dimension, but is instead a clear depiction of the America we should be.
Luckily for millions, Parton’s love for humanity and faith in America never waned. Despite increasing polarization and continuous enactment of fascist policies, Parton continued to advocate for education, equality and Appalachia.
Parton’s father, Robert Lee Parton, could never read or write, but she nevertheless considered him the smartest man she knew, and he inspired her to create Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The Imagination Library is an international nonprofit program that sends a free book to any child every month until their fifth birthday, and it has distributed over 300 million books.
This program has been heralded as life changing. It not only has increased literacy, but also builds emotional connection between family members. According to FOX 10, “as of 2026, 1 in 6 children under the age of 5 in the U.S. is enrolled in the program.”
Before the launching of the Imagination Library in 1995, Parton was dedicated to making a better world. Just seven years before the creation of the Imagination Library, she founded the Dollywood Foundation, which sought to improve education in her home county of Sevier County, Tennessee. Her “Buddy Program,” which offered $500 to paired up students if they both graduated, brought high school dropout rates down from 35% to just 6% in the county.
Parton also raised money for natural disaster relief. In 1994, she donated her song “You Gotta Be My Baby” to a charity album, raising money for HIV/AIDS research. She invested royalties she earned from Whitney Houston’s 1992 cover of “I Will Always Love You” in economic development projects in a Black neighborhood in Nashville, something she didn’t reveal until 2021.
Parton leveraged her rhinestone-studded career to make the world a much better place than it was before she had to leave. She made people realize their worth, whether it was through her music or through her philanthropy. You didn’t have to have financial riches to be worth something to Parton; your riches came from the life you lived and the people you surrounded yourself with. On top of that, her philanthropy ensured people had a better chance of making what she defined as riches.
In a world constantly in turmoil, be a Dolly and find the motivation to make a better world.
Jackson McCoy is a senior studying journalism and environmental studies at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts? Let Jackson know by emailing him at jm049122@ohio.edu.
