EVPL Honors Dolly Parton With Library Displays in Evansville

Evansville Libraries Honor Dolly Parton With a Tribute Close to Her Heart

The EVPL is remembering the country music icon not just for the songs she gave us, but for the millions of children she encouraged to pick up a book.

There are plenty of ways to remember Dolly Parton.

You can turn up “Jolene,” watch 9 to 5 or Steel Magnolias, or spend the day listening to that unmistakable voice. But here in Evansville, local library staff found another way to honor Dolly and this one feels especially fitting.

Following the news of Parton’s death at the age of 80, staff members at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library began putting together displays at EVPL locations celebrating her life, her work and, especially, her incredible impact on literacy.

Dolly Parton's Legacy Goes Far Beyond Music

For people who have dedicated their careers to books, literacy and learning, Dolly was much more than a country music superstar.

She was one of their biggest champions.

Dolly often spoke about her father, Robert Lee Parton, whom she described as one of the smartest people she knew despite his inability to read and write. Seeing the limitations that created for him became part of the inspiration behind one of Dolly's greatest legacies: Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library via Facebook

The program began in 1995 in her home county in East Tennessee with a simple goal put books into the hands of children and help them develop a love of reading from an early age.

What started locally eventually grew around the world.

Today, the Imagination Library mails free, age-appropriate books to children from birth until age 5. The program has gifted more than 300 million books across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland.

One Last Message From Dolly

Maybe one of the sweetest parts of the program comes when a child turns 5 and receives their final Imagination Library book.

Dolly didn't want that last book to be the end of their reading journey.

In a graduation message to children leaving the program, she encouraged them to promise that they would continue reading and specifically pointed them toward their local public library, where countless more stories and adventures would be waiting for them.

That's what makes EVPL's tribute feel particularly special.

Dolly spent decades putting books into children's hands, but she also reminded them that once those monthly packages stopped arriving, their neighborhood library could keep the adventure going.

A Legacy You Can Find on a Bookshelf

Dolly Parton will understandably be remembered for the songs, movies, rhinestones, big personality and a career unlike almost any other.

But somewhere, there is also a child who fell in love with reading because a book with their name on it showed up in the mail every month.

There are millions of those children.

And that's a legacy that will continue long after the music stops.

If you're visiting an EVPL location, keep an eye out for the displays staff have put together in Dolly's memory and maybe honor her in the way she would have appreciated most.

Pick up a book, take it home and keep reading.