08/25/2026
The world feels a little less sparkly today. ✨
Like so many people, I grew up knowing Dolly Parton as the woman with the big hair, the rhinestones, the unmistakable voice, and the songs that somehow found their way into all of our lives. But when I became a young mother, Dolly became something else to me.
Some of the books I curled up and read to my children at bedtime came to our home because of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. At the time, they were simply books arriving in the mail—stories we’d open together, read at bedtime, and tuck back onto the shelf. I don’t think I fully appreciated then what an extraordinary gift that was. A woman I had never met helped put books into my children’s hands. She became a tiny part of those quiet nights of motherhood—the snuggling, the bedtime stories, the “one more book” before turning out the light. And my family was only one of millions. That’s the kind of legacy that feels bigger than fame.
Dolly showed us that you could be wildly ambitious and incredibly kind. That you could be smart and funny and feminine and strong. That there was nothing wrong with taking up space, wearing the rhinestones, dreaming bigger than the place you came from—and then reaching back to make the road a little easier for the people coming behind you.
There will never be another Dolly.
I’m grateful for the music. I’m grateful for the laughter. But today, I’m especially grateful for those books and those ordinary little bedtime moments that I didn’t know then would become such precious memories.
Rest easy, Dolly. 🤍
Thank you for the stories.
1946–2026
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” — Dolly Parton
