“He was always so smart, and it always bothered me. It bothered him, but I can't even begin to imagine, as smart as my Daddy was, what all he could have been if he hadn't have been crippled with that,”

Dolly Parton · said date not stated · reported 2026-08-29

Parton spoke about her father, who never learned to read and write, and how that inspired her Imagination Library program.