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Before Dolly Parton died at 80 on Aug. 25, she said she wanted to be remembered not for her country music career, but for her work as "the book lady" through her Imagination Library charity program.
Dolly Parton Calls Life Without Carl Dean a ‘Big Adjustment’ After His Death
Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 wasn't all about music.
In fact, the country singer—who died on Aug. 25 at age 80—always wanted to be remembered for her work through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a charitable program that provides free books to kids from birth to age 5.
“My dad couldn't read or write and that was kind of crippling to him," she shared 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."
And that's how she became "the book lady" amongst her youngest fans.
"Daddy got to live long enough to hear the kids call me 'the book lady,'" Dolly, who launched the book-gifting project in 1995 in honor of her father Robert Lee Parton, told Today in 2019. "He was proud of as me being a star, and that meant so much to him."
So, which title did she prefer most: country music queen or book lady?
"The book lady," she said without hesitation. "I have loved doing this for the kids. There's nothing more important than our little kids, to make an impression on them when they're young and to teach them the right things early on."
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And while Dolly and her longtime husband Carl Dean, who passed away in March 2025 at 82, never had any children of their own, she always had the next generation on her mind.
"I didn't have children because I believed that God didn't mean for me to have kids, so everybody's kids could be mine so I could do things like Imagination Library," she told Oprah Winfrey in a 2020 interview. "Because if I hadn't had the freedom to work, I wouldn't have done all the things I've done."
Dolly added, "I've made sacrifices, but I believe what I know I'm supposed to do."
For a look back on Dolly's life, read on.
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1955
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1960
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1965
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Late 1960s
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1974
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1975
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1977
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1977
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1980
9 to 5
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1982
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
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1989
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1989
Steel Magnolias
Paul DrinkwaterNBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1990
Gary Null/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1991
Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1993
Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1994
Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1995
Margaret Norton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
1999
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1999
Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2003
Paul Drinkwater/NBCU Photo Bank
2008
Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire
2012
Douglas Gorenstein/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2014
Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire
2014
Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2015
Quantrell Colbert/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2015
Virginia Sherwood/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2016
Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2018
Katherine Bomboy/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
2019
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2019
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