Dolly Parton’s Incredible Gift Has Reached Idaho Kids for Decades

There are some celebrity deaths that just hit differently. Robin Williams was one for me, Betty White was another, and now, Dolly Parton.

Maybe it’s because they’ve been part of our lives for so long that it’s almost impossible to imagine a world where they’re not in it anymore.

Dolly was one of those people for me.

I’ve spent four decades in radio, most of those years in country music, and I was lucky enough to meet a lot of people along the way.

I only met Dolly once, and she was exactly what I hoped Dolly Parton would be... Sweet, humble, very down to earth, and genuinely funny. I didn't feel like I was standing there with one of the most famous entertainers on the planet. She was simply kind.

That’s one of the reasons the news of her death at 80 hit me as hard as it did.

And while Dolly will obviously be remembered for the songs, movies, hair and one-liners, there’s another part of her legacy that has been quietly reaching families right here in Idaho for more than 20 years. There are Idaho kids who have books in their homes because of Dolly Parton.

Dolly Parton Did Make It to Boise

Before we get to the books, there’s a pretty cool piece of Dolly history here in the Treasure Valley.

Dolly performed in Boise in 1989 at the BSU Pavilion on the Boise State campus, which we now know as ExtraMile Arena. But her more meaningful connection to Idaho came years later.

Why Did Dolly Parton Start the Imagination Library?

Dolly’s father, Robert Lee Parton, was a farmer whom she described as extremely intelligent. But he couldn’t read or write and Dolly saw how much that limited his life, so in 1995 she started Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she’d grown up.

The idea was beautifully simple. Give little kids books.

Once enrolled, a child receives an age-appropriate book in the mail every month from birth until age five, completely free to the family.

And they’re not library books. They’re the child’s books to keep. Even the package arrives addressed to the child. A child enrolled from birth can build a personal library of as many as 60 books before kindergarten.

Dolly’s Dad Became Part of the Story

Dolly’s dad lived long enough to watch the Imagination Library begin to grow and children started calling his world-famous daughter “The Book Lady” instead of Dolly. Dolly said her dad got a huge kick out of that. Before his death in 2000, Dolly said her father told her the Imagination Library might be the most important thing she’d ever done.

She wrote hundreds of hit songs, became a movie star and built Dollywood, but what meant so much to her father was that his daughter was helping other children learn to do something he’d never had the opportunity to learn himself.

When Did Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Come to Idaho?

The Imagination Library has been reaching Idaho children for more than 20 years. In October 2003, a report announced that Dolly’s program was coming to Rexburg.

Dolly even commented on it, saying she was excited that books could make it from her home “clear out to Rexburg” and help Idaho children develop a love of reading.

The Rexburg effort was backed by a $150,000, three-year PacifiCorp grant, with BYU-Idaho students and AmeriCorps volunteers helping with activities for participating families.

Idaho Kids Are Still Getting Dolly’s Books

More than two decades later, Dolly’s books are still arriving in Idaho mailboxes. Here in our part of the state, Four Rivers Healthy Community operates the Imagination Library for children in Payette and Washington counties, along with Malheur County in Oregon.

More than 2,000 children across those three counties are currently participating, representing more than half of the area’s eligible kids.

The program also operates in North Idaho through organizations including United Way of North Idaho.

And one thing I really love about the Imagination Library is that it isn’t based on whether Mom and Dad can afford books. The program wasn’t meant for just poor children; it was created for children, period. Dolly believed every kid deserved a chance to fall in love with reading.

How Big Has Dolly’s Imagination Library Become?

Today, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library operates across the United States and in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland. It now sends out more than three million books every month.

Since Dolly started the program in 1995, more than 300 million books have been given to children. All because a daughter loved her dad and wished he’d had the opportunity to learn to read.

Dolly’s Legacy Is Sitting on Bookshelves in Idaho

Somewhere in Idaho right now, there’s probably a little kid carrying around a book that showed up in the mailbox because Dolly Parton wanted them to have it.

boy sitting on bench while holding a book — Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

I knew Dolly Parton for only a few minutes of her 80 years, and I’m certainly not going to pretend otherwise, but I’m grateful I got those few minutes. Because the woman I met was the woman I’d hoped she would be... Funny, warm, humble, kind and genuine.

Maybe that’s why losing certain people we’ve never really known can hurt more than we expect. There was something comforting about knowing people like them were still out there. The world just seemed a little better with them in it.

woman and girl painting on wall — Photo by Wes McFee on Unsplash

But Dolly isn’t finished making it better. There are hundreds of millions of little pieces of her sitting on bookshelves around the world, including some right here in Idaho.

And I can’t imagine a more fitting legacy for one of the sweetest human beings I ever had the privilege to meet.