AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The world is mourning America's sweetheart, Dolly Parton. But the beloved country singer had another nickname, one that was quite close to her heart.
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DOLLY PARTON: The Book Lady.
CHANG: The Book Lady - she was called that because for 30 years, a program that she started has provided a book a month to children from birth to age 5, all across the U.S. and all around the world. Dolly Parton spoke with NPR's Maureen Pao about her Imagination Library back in 2018.
MAUREEN PAO, BYLINE: That's the year Parton's early childhood literacy program reached a major milestone, delivery of its 100 millionth book.
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PARTON: Well, we never thought it would be this big. We didn't really think that far beyond it. I just wanted to do something great for my dad and for my home county and, at the most, maybe a couple of counties over.
PAO: The Imagination library took flight in 1995, starting as a modest effort in the mountains of East Tennessee. Speaking after a celebration at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Parton recalled how the program was a way to honor her father.
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PARTON: Well, my dad, as all my people, are very country people, mountain people, and my dad's from a very large family. And as it was back in the mountains like that, a lot of kids had to work the fields and had to help feed the rest of the family. So my dad did not get a chance to go to school, and Daddy couldn't read and write, and that was kind of crippling to him.
PAO: She didn't want him to feel embarrassed. She was full of admiration for her hardworking father, Robert Lee Parton Sr.
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PARTON: He was such a smart man, though. He just had such good common sense. They call it horse sense in the country, like street sense in the city. But he just had that good old common horse sense.
PAO: Parton's father died in 2000, but he lived long enough to see the success of his daughter's program.
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PARTON: He got to hear the kids call me The Book Lady. He got a big kick out of that. But he took great pride and felt like that he had helped do something special.
PAO: Dolly Parton grew up in a one-bedroom home in Sevier County, alongside her 11 siblings. Parton said she loved to read.
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PARTON: I would read anything, and it was one of those things that the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog at that time was about the only books that were in the house.
PAO: And Parton's Imagination Library ensures kids today have lots of books of their very own.
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PARTON: I still love a real book in my hands. I love the smell of a book. I love the feel of a book. There's just something magical about a book, a real book.
PAO: Since that 2018 interview, the Imagination Library hit another milestone. It now has provided more than 300 million books to kids around the world. Parton considered reading a priceless gift.
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PARTON: I think that if you can read, it gives you wings to fly anywhere you want to go.
PAO: She said it allows children to see how other people live and to show them all the things they might become.
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PARTON: So I just think it's important for kids to be encouraged to read, to dream and to plan for a better life and a better future. They're the ones that's going to save us, hopefully.
PAO: Before her death, Parton put a plan in place to ensure that future generations of children get the chance to read and to dream. Maureen Pao, NPR News.
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PARTON: (Reading) 'Cause Mama made it just for me. The end.
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PARTON: Da da (ph). (Laughter) Did you like that? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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