My Thoughts on Dolly Parton, and Why I Can't Stop Thinking About Her

Even as a little girl, I thought Dolly Parton was so very cool. A little naughty and always sweet, which in my childhood home wasn't exactly encouraged, but we still got to listen to the *9 to 5* movie soundtrack on repeat.

A few summers ago, my kids and I took a road trip through the Great Smoky Mountains. I took this same drive through Tennessee with my parents as a child and wanted to share the experience with my kids. One thing I didn’t get to do then was go to Dollywood, so I made it a point to take my littles there with some of our best friends. We spent two days at Dollywood and stayed in her hotel, where the lobby has a glorious 15 foot tall portrait of Dolly that made me smile every time we walked in. She gave so much back to the world, not only with music that united us but with the Imagination Library and a lifetime of quiet, tireless philanthropy.

Dolly Parton is someone every woman building something can look up to. She shines as a model for how to be an absolute icon and never lose your heart, your kindness, or your passion.

Now that she's gone, there's one part of her story I keep coming back to.

Her father, Robert Lee Parton, never learned to read or write. Dolly talked about this more than once over the years. She said her daddy was a very smart man who was ashamed that he couldn't read, and that watching that shame up close is what pushed her to start the Imagination Library, the program that mails free books to kids from birth through kindergarten. "I saw how crippling that could be," she said once. She turned her father's hardest thing into a program that has now sent out over 270 million books.

I think about that story because I've built something with my own dad, too. 

He's dreamed of being a patented inventor for a long time, and now he's listed on two of my patents. Getting there together, adding his master level craftsmanship and problem solving to prototypes he builds or evaluates with me. Watching him hold a title he wanted his whole life has been one of the best parts of building WundaCore. I know what it looks like when a daughter builds something in her father's honor. And how good it feels to do it. 

If you want to spend today listening to Dolly, here are my top 3: 

- "9 to 5"

- "Shine"

- "Bridge Over Troubled Water"

Play them loud!! 

And if you want to do something with that feeling besides listening, give to the Imagination Library. It started as her father's story and became her life's work, and it's still running, still mailing books to kids who need them. Support Dolly's dream. Let's keep making the world a little better, the way she did.

Donate here to the Imagination Library.

WundaLove, 

Amy