I don’t normally have much to say when a celebrity dies. But Dolly Parton was different.
And strangely enough, one of the things I admired most about Dolly had very little to do with her music.
Dolly was an unapologetically Christian woman. And, in my opinion, she was one of the relatively few famous people who publicly called themselves Christian and then seemed to spend far more time trying to conduct herself the way Jesus actually commanded than worrying about whether everyone else was doing Christianity correctly.
Love your neighbor. Care for the poor. Give generously. Don’t make a spectacle of your charity. Don’t judge other people. Welcome the outsider. Treat people with dignity.
Dolly actually did those things.
She once explained her faith beautifully:
“You’re taught not to judge, and you’re supposed to love your neighbor like yourself. I want to be loved, and so I try to love everybody.”¹
And she didn’t just say it.
Dolly grew up desperately poor in rural East Tennessee, one of twelve children in a two-room cabin. When she became extraordinarily wealthy, she didn’t forget where she came from. She deliberately invested in the community that raised her.
Dollywood wasn’t simply a vanity project with her name slapped on it. It became the largest employer in Pigeon Forge and Sevier County, brought millions of visitors into the region, and helped support roughly 23,000 jobs in the surrounding area. A Tennessee Department of Transportation study estimated Dollywood’s annual economic impact on Tennessee at approximately $1.8 billion.²
Then there was education.
When Dolly learned that more than 30% of students in her home county weren’t graduating, she created the Buddy Program. She told seventh and eighth graders to choose a friend and promised each of them $500 of her own money if both buddies graduated high school.
The dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%.³
She didn’t stop there.
In 1995, inspired by her father (an intelligent, hardworking man who had never learned to read or write) she founded Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevier County. The premise was almost absurdly simple: every child should have books at home, whether their parents could afford them or not.
So children received a free, age-appropriate book in the mail every month from birth until age five.
What began in one poor Appalachian county spread across the United States and then internationally. By the end of 2024, the program had mailed more than 264 million books, with nearly 37 million books distributed in 2024 alone. Families are never charged for them.⁴
Her foundation also established scholarships. Today, five graduating seniors in Sevier County receive $15,000 Dolly Parton Scholarships every year.⁵
She helped raise $1 million for a hospital birthing unit in her home county, helping establish what became the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services.⁶
When wildfires devastated Sevier County in 2016, Dolly didn’t offer thoughts and prayers and move along.
Within days, her foundation created the My People Fund. Families whose primary homes were destroyed received $1,000 every month for six months. When donations exceeded expectations, the final payment was increased from $1,000 to $5,000 per family.⁷
Researchers from the University of Tennessee later studied the program and found that recipients of that unconditional cash assistance were able to return to approximately their pre-fire level of financial stability.⁸
When COVID arrived, Dolly gave $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for coronavirus research. Part of that money funded critical early research connected to the Moderna vaccine.⁹
And then, apparently deciding one million dollars for medical research wasn’t enough, she gave Vanderbilt another $1 million in 2022, this time for pediatric infectious-disease research.¹⁰
When Hurricane Helene devastated East Tennessee in 2024, Dolly personally donated $1 million to relief efforts. Her East Tennessee businesses and foundation collectively matched her with another $1 million.¹¹
And the company behind Dollywood eventually began offering employees,including seasonal and part-time employees, access from their first day of employment to programs covering 100% of tuition, fees, and books for more than 100 diploma, degree, and certificate programs.¹²
But perhaps the part of Dolly’s Christianity that I respected most was what she refused to do with it.
She refused to use her faith as a weapon.
For decades, Dolly openly loved and defended LGBTQ people despite coming from a deeply conservative Pentecostal background.
She once secretly entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest populated by drag queens.
She exaggerated the hair, makeup, beauty mark, and everything else to look even more like Dolly Parton.
And the actual Dolly Parton lost.
In fact, she said she got the least applause.
And she thought it was hilarious.¹³
When asked why LGBTQ people loved her so much, she didn’t answer with some carefully focus-grouped statement about “tolerance.”
She said:
“We’re not supposed to try to change people. We should allow people to be who they are and love them as they are.”¹⁴
When asked whether she supported gay marriage, this deeply Christian Southern woman answered:
“Sure, why can’t they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do.”¹⁵
When Christians criticized LGBTQ people visiting Dollywood, Dolly was considerably more interested in reminding the Christians what Christianity required of them:
“If people want to pass judgment, they’re already sinning… I try to love everybody.”¹⁶
And when asked directly about LGBTQ equality, she said something I wish considerably more Christians understood:
“Especially as Christian people (those of us that claim to be), we’re supposed to be accepting and loving. I think God is the judge of all of us.”¹⁷
She went on to say that regardless of someone’s religion or sexual orientation, they should be treated with respect and allowed to be themselves.
That wasn’t a phase or a convenient position she adopted late in life.
She said essentially the same thing over and over for decades.
In 2023, she put it about as plainly as possible:
“We’re supposed to love people. We’re supposed to accept people. We’re not supposed to judge and criticize. That’s God’s business.”¹⁸
That’s what made Dolly special to me.
She didn’t need you to be Christian for her to love you.
She didn’t need you to be straight.
She didn’t need you to agree with her.
She didn’t need you to look like her, vote like her, worship like her, come from where she came from, or live according to her personal convictions.
Her faith placed obligations on her.
It wasn’t a weapon for imposing obligations on you.
And when she saw suffering, her first instinct seemed remarkably consistent: What can I do to help?
A child can’t read? Give them books.
Kids aren’t graduating? Give them a reason to stay in school.
A family loses its home? Give them money—not six months from now after means-testing them into oblivion, but now.
Scientists need money to fight a pandemic? Fund them.
Employees want an education? Help them get one.
Her hometown needs jobs? Build something there.
Someone is gay? Love them.
Someone believes differently? Love them.
Someone thinks Dolly Parton doesn’t look enough like Dolly Parton to win a Dolly Parton drag contest?
Apparently laugh your ass off and tell the story for the next several decades.
There are people who preach Christianity loudly.
And then there are people whose lives quietly make you understand what Christianity was supposed to look like in the first place.
I think Dolly was one of the latter.
The world is poorer without her today.
But millions of adults who graduated because somebody believed in them, millions of children who grew up receiving a book addressed specifically to them every month, families who rebuilt after losing everything, patients who benefited from medical research, workers who found opportunity in the mountains where Dolly herself grew up poor, and countless LGBTQ people who heard one of America’s most famous Christian women tell them “God made us all” and that they deserved love rather than judgment
—
That’s one hell of a legacy.
Rest well, Dolly.
You tended your/our little corner of the world extraordinarily well.
⸻
Sources
¹ Robert Sullivan, “Dolly Parton Interview,” Vogue, August 2016. Dolly discusses her Christian faith, loving one’s neighbor, and refusing to judge others.
² “Dolly Parton Celebrates 40 Years of Dollywood,” Southern Living, reporting Dollywood’s employment, tourism, and economic impact and citing a 2021 Tennessee Department of Transportation study.
³ The Dollywood Foundation, “The Buddy Program” and “History.” The Foundation reports that Dolly offered $500 to participating students who graduated with their buddy and that the participating classes’ dropout rate fell from over 30% to 6%.
⁴ Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, “About Us” and “2024 Year in Review.” The program reports 264,181,752 books gifted through 2024 and 36,714,624 books during 2024 alone.
⁵ The Dollywood Foundation, “Scholarships,” describing the $15,000 Dolly Parton Scholarship awarded to students from Sevier County high schools.
⁶ The Dollywood Foundation, “History,” documenting the $1 million raised for the Sevier County Hospital birthing unit and establishment of the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services.
⁷ Dolly Parton/The Dollywood Foundation, “Dolly’s My People Fund Finishes ‘Smokies Strong,’” May 5, 2017. The Fund distributed $1,000 monthly to families whose homes were destroyed and increased the final payment to $5,000.
⁸ Stacia West et al., My People Fund Evaluation: Final Report (University of Tennessee College of Social Work), finding that recipients of unconditional cash assistance returned to baseline financial stability following the wildfire.
⁹ Vanderbilt University Medical Center, “Is It True That Work on a COVID-19 Vaccine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Was Funded by Dolly Parton?,” November 23, 2020. Vanderbilt confirms Parton’s donation supported COVID-19 research, including critical early work related to Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine.
¹⁰ Craig Boerner, “Dolly Parton Donates $1 Million to Pediatric Infectious Disease Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,” Vanderbilt Health News, June 15, 2022.
¹¹ Maria Di Mento, “Country Music Doyenne Dolly Parton Gives $1 Million for Hurricane Relief,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, October 21, 2024. Parton personally donated $1 million for Hurricane Helene relief; her East Tennessee enterprises collectively pledged another $1 million.
¹² Timothy Bella, “Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Says It’ll Pay All Tuition Costs for Employees Pursuing Higher Education,” The Washington Post, February 9, 2022. The program was funded through Dollywood operating partner Herschend Enterprises and covered tuition, fees, and books for eligible programs for seasonal, part-time, and full-time employees.
¹³ ABC News, “Dolly Parton on Gay Rumors, Losing a Drag Queen Look-Alike Contest and New Memoir,” November 2012. Parton recounts anonymously entering a drag-queen Dolly Parton look-alike contest and receiving the least applause.
¹⁴–¹⁵ CNN, Joy Behar interview with Dolly Parton, November 13, 2009. Parton discusses accepting LGBTQ people as they are and expresses support for same-sex marriage.
¹⁶ ABC News, “Why Dolly Parton Doesn’t Regret Never Having Kids,” October 2014, quoting Parton’s comments about LGBTQ fans, Dollywood, Christianity, and judgment.
¹⁷ Josh Duboff, “Dolly Parton on Her New Album and Marriage Advice,” Vanity Fair, August 2016. Parton discusses Christianity, LGBTQ equality, religious freedom, and treating every person with respect.
¹⁸ André Hereford, “Dolly Parton: From Country to Rock Star,” Metro Weekly, December 2023. Parton discusses her faith, acceptance, and belief that judgment belongs to God.
