06 / 10
Dolly Parton dies at 80
Dolly Parton’s death closes a career that joined country music with children’s literacy work worldwide.
What happened
Dolly Parton, the American singer, songwriter and actor known as the Queen of Country, has died aged 80. Her family and Dollywood announced her death. Coverage highlighted her musical career and the Imagination Library, the children’s-book programme she founded, which has distributed more than 332 million books.
Numbers
- 80 yearsParton’s age at death
- 332 million booksDistributed by Imagination Library — Across the programme’s lifetime
- 3.2 million childrenCurrently registered for books
Questions
- Why did Parton create the library?
- The programme was inspired by her father, who never learned to read or write after leaving school to work.
- How are books distributed?
- The programme sends free books by post to enrolled children, aiming to increase early access to reading material.
- Where does the library operate?
- It now reaches children in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland through local partner programmes.
- What other causes did she fund?
- She funded medical research connected to one of the first Covid-19 vaccines and donated to Tennessee wildfire victims.
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The catch
Coverage gives no public medical details beyond accounts that cancer caused her death.