26/08/2026
About nine years ago, I had the great fortune to meet Dolly Parton in her hometown in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.
We had travelled there with our then two-year-old son because Tennessee was in the path of totality for a solar eclipse. Looking for somewhere family-friendly to stay along the route, we ended up at Dollywood.
There were rumours flying around among the staff that Dolly was there, although everyone was sworn to secrecy. She had just selected one of my books for her Imagination Library (the signed letter telling me so had arrived the week before we left) so I was already in touch with her team. I chanced my arm and asked if there might be a chance to meet her.
And somehow, meeting Dolly managed to eclipse the solar eclipse that happened that same day.
I’ve met quite a few famous people over the years, and I’ve told various stories about some of them. But none has ever produced the reaction that telling people I met Dolly does. She was universally adored. She seemed to belong to everyone.
And when I met her, I understood why.
She was incredibly warm, funny, generous and completely at ease with herself. There was no sense of performance to her kindness. She just seemed genuinely interested in people.
I remember telling her that I thought she had probably done more to encourage children to read than most governments. She had started her Imagination Library after watching her father struggle to read, and it had grown into something enormous, putting over 270 million books into the hands of children across the country
But it wasn’t just the books. Everywhere we went around Pigeon Forge, people told us stories about things Dolly had quietly done for them — including helping rebuild hundreds of homes destroyed in devastating forest fires when insurance companies wouldn’t.
She had achieved almost unimaginable success, but somehow seemed to have remained entirely herself. That, more than anything, has stayed with me.
Dolly Parton was one of those rare people who made the world feel better simply by being in it.
Rest in peace, Dolly.
We need more like you.
