She has been called everything from the Iron Butterfly to the Smoky Mountain Songbird and the Country Barbie. But to millions of children around the world, she is simply known as the Lady with the Books. A branch of the non-profit Dollywood Foundation, the Imagination Library was founded in 1995 by Dolly Parton out of a desire to help young children love reading – a luxury her father was deprived of, as he could neither read nor write.
And so the Queen of Nashville sends books to children up to five years old, completely free of charge. As she said in 2020 on the CBS This Morning show: "I just thought that if children learn to read early, they won’t be afraid of reading."