If her iconic hit “I Will Always Love You” served as a powerful farewell to a mentor, then the global success of the Imagination Library stands as the most profound and enduring love song Dolly Parton ever composed for her father, Lee Parton. In an often tearful reflection, the country legend has dedicated the program—which now gifts over 200 million books worldwide—to the memory of the father she fiercely admired, the smartest man she knew who carried the lifelong shame of illiteracy.
Lee Parton was a hardworking tobacco farmer in the impoverished mountains of Tennessee. In Dolly’s eyes, he was a genius, capable of fixing anything and possessing a keen, natural understanding of people and the environment. Yet, he was haunted by a private, heartbreaking secret: he could not read.
Because his family was so poor, Lee was forced to drop out of school at a very young age to earn a living. Dolly vividly recalls the pitiful look in her father’s eyes whenever he struggled to read a document or sign his name confidently. That shame, she shared, “broke a part of his soul.”
When Dolly achieved international stardom and amassed a considerable fortune, her goal was not merely to purchase beautiful homes for her parents, but to heal her father’s broken heart. In 1995, she founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a revolutionary program that sends a free book every month to children from birth until they enter kindergarten. She didn’t build the library for fame; she built it for Lee.
She brought her father into the project, telling him, “Dad, I’m going to start this program, and I want you to help me run it.” The man who had been ashamed of his inability to read suddenly found himself a hero to millions of children, feeling he was actively helping to prevent them from suffering the same isolation and illiteracy he endured.
The most touching chapter of this story unfolded during Lee Parton’s final days. He told his daughter, “You know, the kids call you ‘The Book Lady,’ but they call me ‘The Book Lady’s Dad.’ I’m so proud of that.” Dolly Parton has stated that this moment, not the Grammys or the platinum records, represented the greatest success of her life. She had taken her father’s deepest embarrassment and transformed it into his greatest pride before he passed away.
