Quote Of The Day By Dolly Parton: 'My Daddy Just Loved It When All The Little Kids Would Call Me ... '

Dolly Parton had an impressive decades-long career as a country music singer. She was born in 1946 to Robert Lee Parton, who went by Lee, and Avie Lee Parton. Dolly Parton grew up with 11 siblings in a tiny cabin in rural Tennessee. Many in her family were musical, including her mother and grandfather, and they helped inspire her lifelong love of music.  was 13 when she recorded her first single. She kept working and performing and achieving more and more with her music. Some of her early accolades included getting inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in 1969. Then, in 1975 and 1976, she was named the female vocalist of the year at the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards. She won multiple Grammys, and Billboard named her the greatest country artist of all time in 2024.

When it came to Parton's personal life, she stayed close with her family, and she married Carl Dean in 1966. While he stayed out of the spotlight, the two of them were together until his death in 2025. As Parton's fame grew, she was able to build a lavish life, but she also focused on giving back to others. Parton donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University to help create a COVID vaccine. She set up a foundation to help give money to kids from Tennessee to be able to go to college, and she created the Imagination Library, which delivers free books to kids around the world once a month from birth to the age of 5.

Parton sadly died at the age of 80. In her wake, she leaves an impressive collection of music, a business and philanthropic empire, and a collection of wit and wisdom from a life well lived. That's why she's The List's quote of the day.

"My daddy just loved it when all the little kids would call me 'The Book Lady.' That meant more to him than the fact that I had become a star and worked my butt off."

This quote comes from the website for Dolly's Imagination Library. Dolly's dad Robert Lee Parton always kept her humble, and a big part of the inspiration for founding the Imagination Library was that her father grew up not knowing how to read or write. This quote highlights how much joy you can bring to loved ones by helping others. 

As we can see from Dolly Parton's quote about her work with the Imagination Library, you may never know what someone will see when they look at your life and your actions. It may not be the flashy, more stereotypical signs of success that you might expect would impress them. Instead, it could be more meaningful if you're working to help set up others for success.

The Imagination Library was created to help kids learn to love to read, which was something that Dolly's father Robert Lee Parton didn't have the chance to do when he was a kid. Dolly talked about how her father was incredibly smart, but she also said, "I know in my heart his inability to read probably kept him from fulfilling all of his dreams" (via Imagination Library). By instilling a love of reading in kids at a young age, Dolly Parton created a legacy that will potentially even outlast her music. 

If you're able to show compassion and love to others without expecting anything in return — in Parton's case, giving away free books to such a degree that she was called "The Book Lady" — your life will have a deeper significance than you may even realize. By helping kids she'd never meet or know, Dolly was helping to make the world better in a way that she couldn't go back and do for her father.

• "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."
• "Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life."
• "Dream more, learn more, care more, and be more."
• "I never cared what other people did, and I never cared what other people said about what I wore. It was more important that I be comfortable in my own clothes and in my own self."
• "Whether it's birthdays or holidays, making memories with those you love is what matters most in life."