Though Robert Lee Parton couldn't read, 25 years after his death he remains the reason more than 3 million children are gifted a book each month.
The catalyst was his daughter, Dolly Parton, an international icon who touched the lives of people across the world with her music, magnetism and a multitude of philanthropic efforts. And she never forgot her Sevier County roots.
In 1995 − well into her lifelong stardom − she created the Imagination Library to inspire children in her hometown as a tribute to her father.
"He was the smartest man I have ever known but I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams," Parton said on her website. She didn't want children in future generations to face the same barriers
he did.
After her death on Aug. 25, her family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library at imaginationlibrary.com
Through the Imagination Library, participating children younger than 5 years old receive a free book in the mail each month with no strings attached. That amounts to 60 books per child if they're signed up when they're born.
Over the past 30 years, the Imagination Library has grown into a worldwide program. Fourteen percent of children younger than 5 in the U.S. get a book each month, in addition to children in Australia, every province and territory in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom, according to Imagination Library website.
"There's nothing more exciting than using your imagination to create stories," Parton said in 1999. "And I love hearing from all the parents of these kids about the fun they're having with their very own Imagination Library. This is doing what we hoped it would, inspiring children to read more, to learn more, to do more, to be more."
Imagination Library earned 15 awards between 2000 and 2024, but accolades were never the goal for Parton. The mission was simple: Make sure kids across the world can be inspired regardless of their race, gender or socioeconomic status.
"The Imagination Library is a true reflection of Dolly’s vision - that every child, no matter their background, should be inspired to love reading and have the chance to dream big through the gift of books," Tracy Long, director of marketing for the Dollywood Foundation, told Knox News via email.
Parton reached 5K+ preschoolers in Imagination Library's first three years
From the start, Parton and her team's efforts made a difference for the children who first inspired them.
The first book order in 1995 went to 1,700 children, Knox News reported in 2023. And by the time the Friends of the Tennessee Libraries support group named Parton "Friend of the Year" in 1996, Imagination Library was giving one book a month to every preschooler in Sevier County, the News Sentinel reported at the time.
Parton showed no signs of slowing her efforts to inspire children, but any expanding effort is bound to run into new logistical challenges. How can Imagination library grow without compromising its commitments to quality and consistency? How can a growing program stay true to the grassroots vision of its founder? How can books stay free for kids and parents?
That's where David Dotson came in. Hired in 1999, Dotson would lead Imagination Library through national and international expansions for nearly 24 years.
"There was no expectation that it would grow immediately into a global program; the main thing was to do it right and do it carefully," Dotson told Knox News in October 2025. "In 1999, outside of a few people in Sevier County, nobody had ever heard of it. It was a completely new program. What resonated is what still resonates with folks today."
Dolly Parton added another title with Imagination Library: 'The Book Lady'
Parents across the country might have been listening to Parton's hits like "Steady As the Rain" and "The Grass Is Blue," but children knew Parton as "The Book Lady" by the early 2000s, she told the Associated Press in 2002.
In late 1999, Parton announced Imagination Library would expand across the country, and it didn't take long for inspiration to spread. By 2001, 27 affiliates operated in 11 states thanks to local sponsors who connected families with Dotson's team.
"You had a very set program that was the same everywhere, but you had this incredible flexibility of who owned it," Dotson said. "That just threw it open to all kinds of possibilities. That's very much Dolly-like. It was all clear that it was being done in the way she wanted it to be done."
The model has stayed more or less the same since the start: the Dollywood Foundation provides the logistical and administrative support while local partners raise the money and work with families on the ground.
In 2002, Parton had reached nearly 50,000 children in 31 communities in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Dakota and South Carolina., the Associated Press reported.
The United Way frequently underwrote Dolly's Library for communities. Parton's program was such a hit that Laura Bowman, a United Way coordinator in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, told the Associated Press in 2002 that Imagination Library led to the largest increase in donations in 17 years.
"It's such a simple concept, but the impact is so great," Bowman said.
Imagination Library crosses borders: 'Reading gives us someplace to go'
As Imagination Library grew domestically, Dotson started spending more time in communities closer to the Canadian border. Word about Parton's program spread, and expanding north seemed like a natural next step for Dotson.
"We thought heck, it's time to bring this to Canada," Parton said in Toronto when launching the program in 2006. "So here I am, and I couldn't be happier to be here."
The next year, Parton took Imagination Library even further. After Dotson got a call from an elected official in Yorkshire, England, who had heard about it, Parton launched the U.K. branch of the program in 2007.
"We started the same approach with community-by-community (growth)," Dotson said.
By 2010, 100,000 books were distributed in the U.K with the help of Rotary International and United Way, according to the Imagination Library's website. Australia was added to the list in 2013, followed by Ireland in 2019. Bringing Imagination Library to children around the world emphasized what Dotson already knew: Imagination Library is special.
"The thing that has always attracted me to any job and that sustained me is very mission-driven, people working hard, love what they're doing," Dotson said. "It was a very exciting time and a very fulfilling time."
Eighty-eight percent of parents surveyed in 2022 read more with their kids after registering for Imagination Library, according to data collected by the Dollywood Foundation and its UK community partners, and participants were 30% more likely to read than those not participating.
"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay home," one parent from the U.K. told Imagination Library. "Having the Imagination Library has given us the opportunity to explore new books that we wouldn’t initially gravitate towards."
'It's so authentic': Solidifying Imagination Library in the United States
Even as the program expanded internationally, Dotson and Parton worked to reach even more kids back home in the United States. The best way to do that was through creating more statewide programs.
Tennessee became the first to commit to offering Imagination Library statewide in 2004. It required legislation, political support and funding. As Dotson was getting ready to retire, bringing more states on as official partners seemed like a logical way to cap off his time with the program.
"I knew If we get Dolly in front of the National Governors Association, where you have all of the key people in one room, she could weave her magic," Dotson said. "When she speaks about the Imagination Library, it's so authentic and powerful."
That's just what happened.
"It went exactly as we had hoped," Dotson said. "We were flooded with people saying, 'I want this in my state.' And that really was the launching pad of taking many, many communities and one state program in Tennessee, and launching it into many, many states."
Dolly Parton's 'gift of leadership is the gift of inspiration'
Dotson knows everyone wants to know Parton's secret; how could a person be so universally loved?
"Her gift of leadership is the gift of inspiration," Dotson said. "She's an inspirational leader because of who she is, what she espouses, the values she has, the accomplishments she made. The benefit she brings to whatever she touches inspires you, which in turn inspires the people you're trying to lead to be the best they could be."
Parton once said her father told her Imagination Library was her most important accomplishment, and Dotson believes it was possible because the icon never lowered her standards.
"It was one of the easiest relationships I've ever had in work world," Dotson said. "I understood exactly what she wanted, and she understood exactly what I could do. It always struck me as so unusual that she had so many people that worked very closely with her for decades. There's not many people who do that."
“While in many ways I believe Dolly’s legacy of love, acceptance and kindness may be her greatest gift to the world, her Imagination Library is deeply personal to Dolly, and by extension, to all of us who have the privilege of stewarding her vision,” Dollywood Foundation President Jeff Conyers told Knox News in 2026.
Devarrick Turner contributed to this story.
Allie Feinberg is the politics reporter for Knox News. Email: allie.feinberg@knoxnews.com; Reddit: u/KnoxNewsAllie
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Dolly Parton was ‘The Book Lady,’ reaching millions with Imagination Library
