Dolly Parton’s father grew up poor and never got the chance to learn to read.
Inspired by her upbringing, the country music legend made it her mission over the past three decades to improve literacy through her Imagination Library book giveaway program. It expanded statewide in places like Missouri and Kentucky, two of 21 states where all children under the age of 5 can enroll to have books mailed to their homes monthly.
To celebrate, the 78-year-old made stops Tuesday in both states to promote the program and tell the story of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who died in 2000.
Dolly Parton Books
Dolly Parton performs Tuesday during an event celebrating the Missouri statewide expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Kansas City, Mo.
“In the mountains, a lot of people never had a chance to go to school because they had to work on the farms,” she said at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. “They had to do whatever it took to keep the rest of the family going.”
Parton, the fourth of 12 children from a poor Appalachian family, said her father was “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known,” but he was embarrassed that he couldn’t read.