Dolly Parton visited the Library of Congress in 2018, where she read her book Coat of Many Colors to a group of children. (Shawn Miller/Library of Congress)
After family members announced Dolly Parton’s death on Tuesday, tributes immediately came rolling in. One local tribute, in particular, stood out: the DC Public Library’s.
As well as being a world-famous singer-songwriter and actor, Parton was also deeply invested in childhood literacy. Her Imagination Library initiative, which ships a book a month to children from birth to age five, helped inspire the D.C. Library’s Books from Birth program, which has mailed nearly 4 million books to more than 100,000 children across the District over the past decade.
“I think one of her biggest legacies that will carry on is that she’s the Book Lady,” says Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen. “There are a lot of kids growing up in D.C. right now — they may know some of her music, but what they really know is that she delivers a book once a month.”
The councilmember was instrumental in bringing the program to the District.
While visiting his brother in East Tennessee about 12 years ago, Allen says he noticed that his then two-year-old niece would receive books in the mail with her name on the shipping label.
“My brother and sister-in-law were like, ‘Well, this is kind of what we do in Tennessee. We get this book from Dolly Parton,’” Allen says.
When Allen joined the D.C. Council in 2015, the first piece of legislation he successfully passed was to create a similar program here. The program officially launched with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s support in February 2016 and was the Imagination Library’s largest affiliate program at the time, Allen says.
Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen met the late iconic musician in 2018 during an event at the Library of Congress. (Charles Allen)
Currently, more than 30,000 children are currently enrolled in the program. Including children who've aged out of the program, roughly four out of five children who are eligible have participated, according to DCPL.
“It doesn't matter if you're in Ward 3 or Ward 8 or anywhere in between, you've been a part of this,” Allen says.
Parton’s book initiative held a special place in the songwriter’s heart, as it meant a lot to her late father, according to a statement from the Imagination Library. She was quoted as saying, “My Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done.”
In her 2020 documentary, The Library That Dolly Built, Parton shared that her father couldn’t read or write, inspiring her to fight illiteracy, per E! News.
“Of all the things I’ve done in my life,” she said in the film, “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."
Parton used her entrepreneurial chops to negotiate cheaper prices from book publishers to keep the program affordable for taxpayers — the District invests around $25 a year per child, says DCPL’s Executive Director Richard Reyes-Gavilan.
The Imagination Library handles book selection and shipping for the program. Child development experts curated an age-appropriate book list beginning with The Little Engine that Could and ending with Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come! The package for the final book includes a note from Parton encouraging children to continue reading. Through DC Health, parents can enroll their infants from the hospital when they are born. The Imagination Library added a bilingual option and an English/Spanish collection in 2024.
Dolly Parton delivered a special message for D.C.'s young readers in 2016.
“It’s a very economical program that helps us not only get books into the hands of kids, but then it helps us follow up with these families in terms of bringing them to the library, introducing them to library programs, making them lifelong lovers of literacy, and hopefully, keeping them engaged with us throughout their childhood and into their teen years,” Reyes-Gavilan says.
Reyes-Gavilan met Parton when she visited the Library of Congress in 2018 to donate the program’s 100 millionth book and read to children in the Great Hall. He told Parton that he was more nervous to meet her than any president, athlete, or dignitary he’d met.
“I was shaking like a leaf,” he says. “She laughed and said something like, ‘Aw honey, you’ve got nothing to be afraid of, come here.’ And she gave me a hug. … She melted my heart.”
To this day, the only photo of a famous person Reyes-Gavilan keeps in his office is from that meeting.
"Through the Books from Birth program...Dolly Parton championed literacy across the United States and inspired families to embrace the joy of reading...We will always love Dolly Parton."
Elliot (he/him) is a senior reporter for The 51st and has covered the D.C. arts and culture scene for nearly a decade. Before joining The 51st, Elliot worked at Washingtonian Magazine, DCist/WAMU, and the National Press Club Journalism Institute.
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