How ‘Book Queen’ Dolly Parton inspired millions of children with gift of reading

It’s a legacy that Parton built quietly in the background as she presided over pop culture for more than six decades.

“The biggest thing that I like is the fact that she didn’t do anything for recognition,” said Geoff Blacklin, 67, of Manitoba, Canada.

He and his wife signed up their grandchildren for Imagination Library after a local doctor brought the programme to their region.

“She gave families more than books,” Blacklin said. “She gave children a love of reading, precious moments with loved ones, and opportunities to learn and dream.”

Such family stories and gratitude would undoubtedly have been music to Parton’s ears; the expansion of the programme was truly a realisation of her own dream.

“In the beginning, my hope was simply to inspire the children in my home county, but here we are today with a worldwide programme that gives a book a month to well over 3 million children,” she wrote on the Imagination Library site – also taking care to thank the partners “who have embraced my dream and made it their own”.

At the centre of it, always, was her love for children – and her love for her father.

“Before he passed away, my Daddy told me the Imagination Library was probably the most important thing I had ever done,” Parton wrote.

“I can’t tell you how much that meant to me, because I created the Imagination Library as a tribute to my Daddy.”