Dolly Parton’s father grew up in poverty and never had the chance to learn to read.

Inspired by her upbringing, 78-year-old country music legend has spent the last three decades working to improve reading literacy through its Imagination Library book distribution program. It has expanded nationwide to places like Missouri and Kentucky, two of 21 states where any child under 5 can sign up to have books sent home monthly.

To mark the occasion, she stopped in both states on Tuesday to promote the program and tell the story of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who died in 2000.

“In the mountains, many people never had the opportunity to go to school because they had to work on the farms,” ​​she said at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. “They had to do whatever it took to support the rest of the family.”

Parton, the fourth of 12 children in a poor Appalachian family, said her father was “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known” but was embarrassed that he couldn’t read.

So she decided to help other children. In 1995, she first introduced the program in a single county in her home state of Tennessee. From there, it quickly spread, and today over 3 million books are sent out each month. Since the program began, books have been sent to over 240 million children in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

Missouri covers the entire cost of the program, which totaled $11 million in the last fiscal year. Most other states share funding through a cost-sharing model.

“The kids started calling me ‘Book Lady,'” Parton said. “And Dad was more proud of that than of me being a star. But Dad also felt like he had really accomplished something great.”

In Kentucky, the Imagination Library reaches children in all 120 counties, Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday at an event with Parton. More than 120,000 children in Kentucky — nearly half of all preschool children in the state — are currently enrolled in the program to receive books, First Lady Britainy Beshear said.

It encourages families to read together and allows children to have their own personal library before they start kindergarten, at no cost to their families, the First Lady said.

“It’s really a great way to teach kids a love of books and reading at a very young age,” Parton said during the event in Lexington, Kentucky.

Parton, who received a Grammy for lifetime achievement 10 years ago, said she wants to see the program eventually in every state. Although it is in every state, 21 of them have laws in place to ensure that all children under 5 can participate. She said she is proud that her father lived long enough to see the program launch.

“It was kind of my way of honoring my father, because the Bible says to honor your father and mother,” she said. “And I don’t think that just means ‘just obey.’ I think it means honoring their name and honoring them.”

Parton is an author herself and has published, among other things, the children’s book “Coat of Many Colors” from 1996, which is part of the book giveaway program.

As she prepared to sing her famous song of the same name, she explained that it was about a coat her mother had made for her from a patchwork of mismatched fabrics, as the family was too poor to afford a large piece of one fabric. Parton was proud of it because her mother compared it to the colorful coat mentioned in the Bible – a fantastic gift from Jacob to his son Joseph.

However, her classmates laughed at her. For years she said the experience had “hurt her deeply.”

She said that in writing and performing the song, “the pain just fell away from me.” Over the years, she has received letters from people saying it did the same thing to them.

“The fact,” she explained, “that this little song has meant so much not only to me but to so many other people for so many different reasons, makes it my favorite song.”

When asked in Kentucky about her lasting legacy, Parton said she wanted to be remembered as a “good old girl” who worked hard and tried to make people happy and the world a better place.

“Of course I want to be known as a songwriter and singer, but I can honestly say that The Imagination Library has meant as much, if not more, to me than almost anything I’ve ever done,” she said.

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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Schreiner reported from Frankfort, Kentucky.