Dolly Parton’s touching note to children she supported with her Imagination Library: ‘You can be anyone you want to be’
Dolly Parton’s touching note to children she supported with her Imagination Library: ‘You can be anyone you want to be’
Raechal ShewfeltThu, August 27, 2026 at 11:36 PM UTC
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Dolly Parton in 2017Credit: Kevin Mazur/GettyKey Points -
As captured by a parent, a note that Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library sent to its graduates includes kind words and encouragement from the star.
Parton has been the subject of a cascade of tributes since her death on Aug. 25.
The organization was one of many philanthropic efforts from the country music star.
Tributes to beloved country music star Dolly Parton, who died Aug. 25 at 80, just keep coming.
And they’re not all about her prolific music career. They’re also about her acting, her business expertise, and simply her love of other humans (animals too!), whom she helped through her considerable philanthropic efforts.
In one of the latest, Hannah Sampson, a staff writer for the Washington Post, shared a note she said her daughter received from Parton’s Imagination Library last year when she turned 5.
The library mails free books to children from birth to age 5, regardless of their family’s income. Launched in 1995, DPIL at first sent books to little ones in Parton’s hometown, but it has since expanded to distribute books nationally since 2000. The program is also now in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Republic of Ireland. In 2023, it mailed its 200 millionth book.
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“My how time flies. It seems it was only yesterday when our family and friends read you your first story. You were just a baby. Now you’re five years old and about to go to school. How exciting!” Parton wrote in the letter.
“This may be your last book from my Imagination Library but you have to promise me you will keep on reading,” the “9 to 5” singer continued. “If you go to your local public library you will find a great number of books just for kids your age. Every book is a treasure and every time you open one up you will meet new friends and take wonderful journeys to magical places.”
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She also wished her young readers well in their future reading journey — and offered them some words of advice.
“I hope you have a great time in school. I bet your school will even have a library where you can check out books. You and all of your friends are very special. There is no limit to what you can do or how far you can go. Just remember the lessons my family taught me — dream big dreams; learn everything you can learn; and care for all those who care for you. You do all of these things, and you can be anyone you want to be.”
Parton concluded, “You are terrific, and remember… I Will Always Love You.”
Dolly Parton reads to kids in 2018Credit: Shannon Finney/Getty
Entertainment Weekly’s email request for comment was answered with a note that the library is “currently navigating a deeply emotional time as we mourn the passing of our beloved founder and Dreamer in Chief, Dolly Parton. Dolly was the heart and soul of the Imagination Library, and we are deeply grateful for the incredible legacy of love, literacy, and imagination she leaves behind.”
The Steel Magnolias star had explained that her father couldn’t read or write. She didn’t have access to books, except the Bible, when she was growing up in a family with 12 children. But she wanted others to have access to what she didn’t.
“We send the book in the mail with their name on it,” Parton told Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in 2018. “It’s not in the care of Mom and Dad — it’s got their little name on it, and they love to think, ‘This is mine.’ They wait at the mailbox. They get their little books, and to them, it’s personal.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
