Governor Lee signed a resolution created by Tennessee lawmakers honoring Dolly Parton.
Via Facebook, Governor Lee states, “Proud to sign this resolution and recognize our TN Treasure Dolly Parton for her contributions to children’s literacy. Since 1995, Dolly has worked beyond 9 to 5 to distribute 152+ million books to 1.8+ million kids. Thank you, Dolly! TN will always love you.”
In the resolution, it states its purpose is “to recognize and honor beloved Tennessean and cultural icon Dolly Parton for her contributions to children’s literacy.”
The resolution continues by sharing some of Dolly’s accomplishments.
- Dolly Parton has sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
- She is also the recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor given by the United States government for excellence in the arts.
- In 2003, she received the Partnership Award from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in connection with Dollywood’s American Eagle Foundation bald eagle sanctuary
- She donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, and the following year, the Sevier County Senior Center was renamed the My People Senior Activity Center in her honor.
- When a wildfire devastated more than 17,000 acres of the Smoky Mountain National Park in 2016—causing 14,000 residents and tourists to evacuate, damaging or destroying 2,400 buildings, injuring nearly 200 and killing 14, and displacing many whose homes were burned—Dolly Parton came to the aid of her neighbors without hesitation, starting the My People Fund, which gave $13 million to 900 families to help rebuild their homes.
- Ms. Parton has been a leading figure in the fight against COVID-19; in 2020, she gave $1 million to help fund research into a cure for the virus at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, which ultimately helped lead to the successful development of the Moderna vaccine
- Because of the Imagination Library, many know Dolly Parton as “the book lady,” as the program provides a new, age-appropriate book each month to preschool children from birth to their fifth birthday; to date, the program has registered 1,788,176 young people and gifted a total of 152,366,795 books to young readers throughout the world.
