Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters has passed Dolly Parton every day for nearly 30 years. The bronze statue of the star with guitar in hand stands proudly outside the courthouse in Sevierville that houses his office.
Now as Waters prepares to leave office Aug. 31 after 48 years of dedicated service, the person the statue represents has taken on a different meaning.
Parton was known worldwide as an artist and businesswoman but she was a philanthropist at heart, and that's how Waters knew her for nearly all his life. He treated her projects with deep respect because for Parton, all of them were personal.
“Dolly has always given back to this community," he told Knox News. "She was proud of Sevier County and the Smokies. Proud she was born and raised
here even though her family didn’t have a lot. She told that story everywhere she went, in her music and in her generosity here."
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Maybe more than anything else during his decades serving the community, Waters will be remembered as a man who took charge as a deadly wildfire tore through Gatlinburg and parts of Pigeon Forge in 2016. The fire killed 14 and destroyed thousands of buildings and homes.
Out of the darkness, Parton helped organize the largest community response. Within two days, while smoke was still floating through the hills, Parton announced her My People Fund, which disbursed millions to wildfire victims. A telethon she helped organize raised $9 million.
Donations poured in, with more than $9 million coming from a telethon Parton held. It was so successful Parton had more than $3 million left after the checks were disbursed. She gave it to the Mountain Tough program to help as the recovery effort carried on.
And while Parton led the initial effort and was a force behind the telethon, she stepped out of the spotlight and didn’t publicize the visits she made to those hurt so badly by the disaster.
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“That meant so much to people who were devastated and was really one of the catalysts that’s helped us to recover the way we did,” Waters said. “That and the resilience of the people up here. … After (the donations) no longer came in, so many of them said, 'We’re going to pick ourselves up.'”
While the Dollywood Foundation and the Imagination Library are perhaps Parton's most recognizable charitable efforts, she frequently used her influence to raise funds or donated to smaller causes out of her own pocket. And, of course, her driving force behind creating Dollywood and so many other Sevier County businesses was employing thousands of people from across the region.
The list of her charitable projects is long:
- In 2026, Parton gave the East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville a significant donation. The hospital and medical offices honored the star by renaming the entire institution the Dolly Parton Children's Hospital.
- Parton announced a $1 million donation in 2024 to the Mountain Ways Foundation to provide immediate assistance to the victims of Hurricane Helene. This was in addition to another $1 million donation from her East Tennessee businesses. Parton previously made contributions to victims of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
- In April 2020, Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to support research of a COVID-19 cure, which ultimately helped lead to the creation of a vaccine by Moderna Therapies. A 2020 report on the vaccine credits Parton for supporting the research.
- In 2007 she closed a 32-date international tour at the Tennessee Smokies’ stadium in Kodak to support a new hospital in Sevier County. By the time the night was over, $500,000 was raised.
Reporter Hayden Dunbar Evans contributed to this report.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com; X: @tyler_whetstone; Signal: twhetstone141924.39
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dolly Parton told the story of her life in the way she gave back to her hometown
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