Crossville
Dolly Parton, born in Pittman Center, Tennessee in 1946, has passed away at the age of 80 years old.
Dolly was a legendary country music singer winning 11 Grammy Awards and 25 number one hits. As of 2012 she had written more than 3,000 songs and sold more than 100 million records, making her one of the best-selling female artists ever. As of 2021, she had appeared on the country music charts in each of seven decades, the most of any artist.
The Tennessee native opened one of the world’s best theme parks in 1986 in Pigeon Forge Tennessee naming it Dollywood where it receives positive recognition yearly.
More importantly Dolly cared about her community and helped people in any way possible. In 1995, Dolly launched her Imagination Library in Sevier County,TN, The program sent free books to children from birth to age five and helped inspire a love of reading in the lives of the children in the mountains of her youth. It spread from one county to the entire state of Tennessee. The excitement and results of the program kept growing until it spread all over the United States. From there, it expanded to Canada,United Kingdom,Australia and Republic of Ireland.
The Dollywood Foundation was established in 1988, it initially aimed to decrease high school dropout rates in her native Sevier County,Tennessee, through incentive programs like the Buddy Program, and continues to provide substantial college scholarships.
Dolly created the My People Fund in 2016, which provided $1,000 a month for six months to families who lost their homes in the Great Smoky Mountain wildfires, distributing nearly $9 million. She also raised funds for flood relief in Middle Tennessee.
Dolly Parton will be dearly missed.
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