Tuesday was a solemn day for Heather Hall and staff members at the Cumberland County Public Library downtown.
A sad day, too, for Scott Embry at the United Way of Cumberland County office on Dick Street, with news that Dolly Parton passed away at age 80 in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Dolly Parton may have been known worldwide as the “Country Queen of Music,” but Dolly Parton was so much more than a songwriter and singer with the melodic voice, the sequins, and the rhinestones.
“We are heartbroken about the loss of Dolly Parton,” said Hall, director of the county library, where the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been a part of the library since it was founded by Dolly Parton in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, where she grew up dirt poor in a cabin as the fourth child of 12 children.
She dedicated the library benevolence in memory of her late father, who never learned to read. Robert Lee Parton described it as his daughter’s finest philanthropic gift before his death at age 70 on November 12, 2000. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, according to its website, is a book gifting program that mails free, high-quality books to children from birth to age five, no matter their family’s income.
“The United Way of Cumberland County has managed the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library locally since 2005, and we are incredibly proud to continue building on Dolly’s legacy,” said Embry, the nonprofit’s executive director. “Her own story, establishing the program in honor of her father, who never had the opportunity to learn to read, is a powerful reminder of how something as simple as a book can change the trajectory of a life.”
Literacy, he said, always has been an important part of the United Way of Cumberland County’s mission.
“We believe literacy opens doors and unlocks a child’s potential,” Embry said. “Creating positive experiences with books at an early age is critical to fostering a lifelong love of reading. It’s about so much more than mailing books. Readers are leaders, and we see this as an investment in raising the next generation of leaders in Cumberland County.”
Cape Fear Valley Health and Womack Army Medical Center on Fort Bragg also has joined with our local United Way in supporting the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“In July 2024, we partnered with the United Way of Cumberland County to assist families with the enrollment process for the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library when they deliver a baby at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center,” said Sabrina Brooks, who is vice president of philanthropy and marketing for Cape Fear Valley Health. “Our nurses guide parents through the enrollment process before the baby is discharged. This process ensures every child born at CFVMC is on a path to success by fostering early literacy and a love of reading.”
Susan Dees, executive chief of nursing for the health system, worked with Embry in establishing the partnership with United Way of Cumberland County.
“It is a fantastic program,” Dees said. “I did it for both my girls when they were young.”
The Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has donated more than 330 million books for children worldwide since 1995, according to its website, and the donations continue growing.
“The program has had a tremendous response,” Embry said in Cumberland County, too. “Registrations have grown to more than 300 children in most months, and last month we surpassed 11,000 books delivered to children in Cumberland County from birth through age five. In June, a representative from the Dolly Parton Foundation visited Fayetteville to tour both hospitals and see firsthand what we are doing. Their goal is to share what they saw with other affiliates across the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library network.”
‘Dolly Understood’
Dolly Parton’s vision more than 30 years ago, Heather Hall says, is a gift for every young child’s tomorrow.
“There is something incredibly special about a child receiving a book in the mail with their own name on it,” Hall said. “For some children, it may be the first book that truly belongs to them. For families, each book is an invitation to slow down for a few minutes, sit together, and share a story. Those moments may seem small, but they add up. They help children build language skills, arrive at school better prepared and, hopefully, develop a love of reading that stays with them throughout their lives.
“Dolly understood that a child should not miss out on the joy and opportunity books can provide simply because of where they live or what their family can afford,” Hall said. “Through her generosity, millions of children have grown up with books in their homes, and families have created memories together that they may not otherwise have had. She gave children more than something to read. She helped them feel important, encouraged their imaginations, and reminded them that their dreams were worth having. It is difficult to imagine a more beautiful legacy.”
Hall said Imagination Story Times is evidence of Dolly Parton’s vision at 10 a.m. on the first four Saturdays hosted by the Cumberland County Public Library. The first Saturday is at the downtown library, the second Saturday at the Bordeaux branch, the third Saturday at the North Regional Library, and the fourth Saturday at the Cliffdale Regional Library.
“Every child who attends one of those story time programs,” Hall said, “leaves with a book provided by United Way of Cumberland County.”
September 25, 2026
Dolly Parton was more than her songwriting, her singing, her film acting, her glitz and glamour, and those sequins and rhinestones. For all of her enormous success, she never forgot her roots from growing up in that tiny cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Dolly Parton believed that every tomorrow always would be better than today.
“We’re heartbroken by Dolly’s passing, but we’re also incredibly grateful for the tremendous life she lived and the legacy she leaves behind,” Scott Embry said. “We’re excited to continue her work here in Cumberland County and help ensure that future generations have the opportunity to reach their full potential through a love of reading.”
Heather Hall grew up in East Tennessee.
“She inspired my path toward librarianship,” she said, and the Cumberland County Public Library will not forget Dolly Parton. “Cumberland County Public Library also plans to honor the late, great, and deeply beloved Dolly Parton on Sept. 25, 2026. We chose the date as a nod to her signature song, ‘9 to 5’ from the 1980 film starring Parton, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and the late Dabney Coleman. Our staff is already working on special early literacy programs at our eight Cumberland County Public Library locations to celebrate her life, her love of reading, and the incredible legacy she created for children and families.”
Epilogue
There are those people who pass our way in life—some we are close to and those we come to know from afar.
Those from afar may not know our names, but we know theirs. And just about all of us knew Dolly Parton and her gracious and humble ways.
All of us mourn her passing.
I wanted to be among so many of us in remembering who she was and what she has meant to generations of fans, and I thought of no better way to give tribute to Dolly Parton than telling you about her Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which, in her heart, was bigger and longer than the state of Tennessee.
She leaves us with a template of how all of us should try to live our lives.
“For those who would like to make a gift in Dolly’s honor, we would encourage them to give through the United Way of Cumberland County so those dollars can continue to make an impact right here at home,” Scott Embry said. “One hundred percent of every dollar given through the United Way of Cumberland County stays in Cumberland County, no exceptions.”
Donations can be made online to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
So, off you go, “Book Lady.” Off you go.
You gave us song, and you gave us your heart.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
