The following post was created using content sourced from the Dollywood Foundation History, Global Citizen, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library:
For generations, Dolly was a songwriter, performer, actress, businesswoman, advocate, and unmistakable cultural icon. Her 1980 hit movie, 9 to 5, became an anthem for working people, capturing the frustrations, inequities, and aspirations of everyday workers with the humor and honesty that defined so much of her career.
But Dolly Parton didn’t just sing about working people. She invested in them.
Her legacy offers a remarkable example of something those of us in workforce development know well: economic opportunity doesn’t begin with a job opening. It begins with strong communities, education, access to opportunity, and interrupting generational poverty through the belief that people are capable of building something more.
Investing in Her Hometown
Dolly grew up in a large family in rural Sevier County, Tennessee, and when she achieved success, she made an intentional choice to invest back into the place that raised her.
The opening of Dollywood in 1986 helped transform the economy of East Tennessee. Over time, the Dollywood enterprise grew into a major regional economic engine, with an estimated $1.8 billion annual economic impact and more than 23,000 direct, indirect, and secondary jobs.
Those numbers tell an important workforce story. Dolly didn’t simply lend her name to a tourist attraction. She helped create an industry ecosystem that supported thousands of jobs and businesses while drawing investment and visitors to her home region.
And she understood that creating jobs was only one piece of the equation. Dollywood employees have also had access to education benefits, including programs covering tuition, fees, and books for continuing education.
It is a philosophy workforce professionals recognize immediately: a good employer doesn’t just hire people. A good employer creates opportunities for people to grow.
Keeping Young People Connected to Education
Dolly’s investment in education began close to home, too. In the early 1990s, when Sevier County was struggling with high school dropout rates, the Dollywood Foundation launched the Buddy Program. Seventh- and eighth-grade students were paired with a buddy and promised $500 if both students successfully graduated from high school. The results were extraordinary: the dropout rate among the participating classes fell from approximately 35% to 6%.
Perhaps even more important, the program helped mobilize the surrounding community to invest additional resources in helping students succeed.
It was an early demonstration of an idea that remains central to workforce development today: sometimes talent grows because barriers are removed, encouragement is provided, and someone is willing to invest in the potential.
More Than 332 Million Books and Counting
Dolly’s most far-reaching educational legacy began with something deeply personal.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was unable to read or write. Dolly often spoke about how intelligent he was despite lacking the educational opportunities that would have allowed him to become literate.
In his honor, she founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevier County in 1995. The idea was wonderfully simple: mail free, age-appropriate books directly to children from birth to age five, regardless of their family’s income.
What began in one Tennessee county became an international early-literacy movement. Today, the Imagination Library operates across five countries, mails millions of books each month and has placed more than 332 million books into the hands of children.
For workforce development, early literacy is invaluable.
A child learning to love books is beginning to develop the literacy, curiosity, confidence, and capacity to learn that will follow them into school, postsecondary education, and eventually the workforce. Dolly understood that if we want adults to have opportunities someday, we have to invest in children today.
A Workforce Legacy Worth Remembering
Dolly Parton’s life is difficult to summarize because she did so much. And somehow managed to do it while never appearing to take herself too seriously.
She entertained millions. She built businesses. She created jobs. She supported workers pursuing education. She helped teenagers stay in school. She put hundreds of millions of books into children’s homes. And through it all, she remained deeply connected to where she came from.
For those of us working in workforce and economic development, there is something worth carrying forward from that example.
Invest in people. Invest in places. Make education accessible. Create opportunities for people to grow. And never underestimate what can happen when someone is given the tools and the encouragement to dream bigger.
Dolly once built a song around the working day from 9 to 5.
On 9/25, we remember that her contribution to working people extended far beyond the song.
She helped build opportunities that will last for generations.
Post photo by Curtis Hilbun – Dolly Parton, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped from original.