"Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on."
- Thurgood Marshall
MAGA: Ban the Books!
Dolly: Read the books!
- “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.”
- “Storms make trees take deeper roots.”
- “Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
- “If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one.”
- “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.”
- “My weaknesses have always been food and men—in that order.”
- “People always ask me how long it takes to do my hair. I don't know, I'm never there.”
Social media explodes in grief at passing of singer-songwriter, actor, philanthropist and absolute legend
RIP Dolly Parton, a gem and a hero. She died today at the age of 80.
FLASHBACK: Dolly Parton represents all that’s best about America.
She has, for 25 years, run a literacy programme for children, sending books to different parts of the world without fanfare. The daughter of an illiterate but intelligent father, she set up the Imagination Library, rather than, more obviously, a support for the performing arts. She understands that few people are going to have her route out of grinding poverty but that many who learn to love to read will make a success of their lives.
She has been a supporter of gay, lesbian and trans rights for decades; she stays out of party politics, very wisely not condemning what much of her audience will passionately believe. She is, in short, a living embodiment of the American trust in the transformative effect of hard work and talent. She has done it without losing an iota of her good humour or charm, and never giving the slightest hint of the usual American sanctimoniousness; she is, as everyone agrees, a very good thing indeed.
Dolly has never complained much about the barriers she had to overcome, preferring to bring out some well-worn jokes on the subject. On her villainous collaborator in the early years, Porter Wagoner, she has said:
‘I knew he had balls when he sued me for a million dollars. He was only paying me $30 a week.’ There is no question, however, that these barriers were substantial, and defeated many others. Bobbie Gentry, a similarly determined and intelligent singer of the time, withdrew from public appearances altogether by the end of the 1970s. Dolly has often put these problems down to her sex, and the difficulties of being a woman in a man’s world. I’m not so sure. That is part of it, but the worst humiliations she faced sprang, surely, from something Americans find very hard to discuss: class.
Dolly was, from the start, perfectly sincere in her spectacular look — hair on a scale not glimpsed since Mme de Pompadour, rhinestones, glitter and an unforgettable silhouette which surgery may have contributed to.
When the scientists in 1996 succeeded in cloning a sheep with cells taken from the mammary gland, the result was always going to be called ‘Dolly’. We love all these things about her now, of course, but they threw a lot of commentators into a class-driven frenzy that had little to do with her sex. In a television interview in 1977, Barbara Walters thought herself entitled to ask Dolly when she experienced puberty, whether her husband felt obliged to be faithful, and whether her breasts were real.
She even submitted her guest to the indignity of standing up and inviting the audience to inspect her body. Would Walters have ever done this to Meryl Streep or Meg Ryan? It was sheer class hostility, and no doubt much more of it took place in private, and in boardrooms.
—Philip Hensher, The Spectator, January 14th, 2021
Dolly Parton’s Gift to America’s Children – Imagination Library
“In lieu of flowers, Dolly Parton’s family is asking for donations to her Imagination Library, which has distributed over 330 million books to kids. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that, and counting mails free books to children from birth until they begin school in participating areas.”
- See also Raw America: “Music legend Dolly Parton died this week at the age of 80, after a brief battle with cancer. The entire country has spent the last week mourning her and celebrating her contributions. Parton’s Imagination Library charity is credited with sending more than 332 million free books to thousands of kids across five countries. It’s one of the most beloved charities in the country. Parton said she built the charity to unite people around a common cause regardless of politics. But while the nation grieves her, two Republican-led states have already moved to defund her charity. Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, cut the program’s $3 million dollar state allowance in 2025, insisting private donors would make up the difference. Missouri also slashed its funding of the Imagination Library from $6 million dollars down to $2 million. That cut forced the state to freeze new enrollment in the program back in July. State officials say they’re not sure whether the program eve has a future in the Show Me State. Ironically, Missouri was the first state in the country to fully fund the Imagination Library back in 2024. Parton herself said at the time it made her happy knowing she was giving kids something that made them feel special. But less than two years later, that funding has evaporated, while the same Republicans responsible for defunding Parton’s charity now post tributes to her legacy. That’s a pretty cynical pattern: cut the funding first, post the tribute, and hope no one connects the dots.
- See also NYT (Gift Article): Dolly Parton, Superstar Whose Songs Spoke to Millions, Dies at 80. And David Graham in The Atlantic (Gift Article) on The Transcendence of Dolly Parton. “The late singer was perhaps the only person in the United States who commanded nearly universal affection.”