How Dolly Parton helped thousands of NC families foster a love of reading
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Dolly Parton has long been more than a country music icon.
For millions of families she’s the “book lady,” a woman who helped sparked countless obsessions with reading and precious family moments bonding over a book.
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Parton died on Tuesday. Aug. 25, 2026. She was 80.
She created the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to bring a love of learning to children, first in her home county, then home state of Tennessee before expanding to North Carolina.
“My dad couldn’t read or write and that was kind of crippling to him,” she said in her 2020 documentary ‘The Library That Dolly Built.’ “Of all the things I’ve done in my life—and it’s been a lot because I’ve been around a long time—this is one of the most precious things and the proudest I’ve been of any program I’ve ever been involved in, working with these kids.”
The Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides books to children ages 0 to 5, one a month, mailed to their homes for free. The program’s been in North Carolina for several years but paused accepting new children in January 2025 due to reaching maximum capacity until this summer. Now, applications are back open statewide.
“We want children to love books so that they can expand their knowledge,” said Denise Rossi, early literacy program specialist for Wake County Smart Start, in a previous interview with The News & Observer. “We want them to increase their vocabulary. We want them to learn about the world around them. We want them to learn about themselves and their feelings, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has beautiful books that are age-appropriate for every age group that is involved in the program.”
In a statement, the Parton family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Here’s how the program works in North Carolina:
Children, from birth to 5, are able to get an age-appropriate book mailed to their homes every month, free of charge.
The program is available throughout North Carolina with help from the North Carolina Partnership for Children and its local Smart Start organizations, which enrolls children in the program.
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“It’s a program to get them started working on their early literacy skills, fostering their love of reading, working with families on the importance of boding with their child over a book so they’re ready for Kindergarten,” Rossi said.
Children can enroll directly on the Imagination Library website, imaginationlibrary.com/check-availability, or at the website for local Smart Start group.
“By the time a child is 5, up to 90% of the brain is formed, and language and literacy is that vehicle that we use to help stimulate the brain, to stimulate imagination,” said Gayle Headen, executive director of Wake County Smart Start.
The books are free to all children, regardless of income. That means there is a maximum amount of children, about 300,000, that can be served at one time, Headen said.
“The previously enrolled and active children at that time continued receiving books without interruption, but we paused any new enrollments to make room for natural attrition, primarily by children turning 5 and aging out of the program,” she said.
Portions of this story were previously reported by The News & Observer.
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This story was originally published August 26, 2026 at 2:23 PM with the headline “How Dolly Parton helped thousands of NC families foster a love of reading.”
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