A mural depicting Dolly Parton in Asheville, North Carolina. Photo by Wes McFee on Unsplash

The country legend built an Imagination Library that reached 13,000 local children before her death Tuesday.

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Dolly Parton, the country music icon and philanthropist whose free-book program has mailed more than 100,000 titles to Fresno County children, died Tuesday. She was 80.

Her nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced the news in a video posted to Parton’s social media accounts. Her family did not give a cause of death. Parton had disclosed health concerns earlier in 2026, canceling a Las Vegas residency and citing digestive issues.

Parton wrote hundreds of songs, among them “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million in worldwide sales. She was, as the Associated Press put it, the rare celebrity whose appeal crossed generations, geography and politics.

Why the books mattered to her

The program Fresno County families know arose from Parton’s own childhood. One of 12 children in what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family, Parton started the Imagination Library because her father — who left school to work the farm — struggled to learn to read. The nonprofit mails free, age-appropriate books each month to children from birth to age 5.

A quiet Fresno County legacy

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library launched in Fresno County in 2025 through a partnership among the State of California, First 5 Fresno County and its nonprofit arm, Lighthouse for Children, Inc., and community backers including Valley Children’s Healthcare.

The rollout was announced in February 2025 at the Dakota Circle Head Start near Granite Park, where organizers estimated 70,000 county children would be eligible. Fresno City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell, who championed the effort, recalled the initial $800,000 price tag as daunting.

“I thought this was dead on arrival because that’s a lot of money to raise,” Maxwell said at the launch. A matching-fund bill from state Sen. Shannon Grove, along with local business donations, cut the goal in half.

100,000 books and counting

The program hit a milestone in June 2026: more than 100,000 books mailed to 13,000 Fresno County children since the first shipments went out in March 2025. More than 2,000 children have “graduated,” receiving a final book at age 5.

Nearly 24% of enrolled children live in rural communities, and about 20% receive bilingual Spanish collections. First 5 Fresno County runs day-to-day operations. Families can still enroll through the Lighthouse for Children website.

A rare figure most people agreed on

In a polarized era, Parton drew broad affection across political lines — a status she guarded by staying out of partisan fights. “I have too many fans on both sides of the fence,” she once said. A 2026 YouGov ranking placed her 11th among the most popular public figures ever, viewed favorably by 77% of U.S. adults — more popular than Tom Hanks (74%), Ryan Gosling (73%) and George Washington (74%).

That across-the-aisle appeal showed up locally, too. The Imagination Library, Maxwell noted, won backing from Republicans and Democrats alike: “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, this is an important issue.”