AILSA CHANG, HOST:
In Dolly Parton's birthplace of Sevier County, Tennessee, local people remember her not only for her songs, but also for her lifetime of generosity to the place she came from. Katie Myers of Grist and Blue Ridge Public Radio reports.
KATIE MYERS, BYLINE: Dolly Parton's most famous songs, like "Tennessee Mountain Home," (ph) often referred back to her upbringing in the mountains of east Tennessee.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME")
DOLLY PARTON: (Singing) In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as baby's sigh.
MYERS: And here, where she was from, she remained a part of people's lives. There's a statue of her in the town square in Sevierville, Tennessee. Since the announcement of her passing, the flowers have piled up at its feet. As more and more learn the news, doors began to open. People poured into the town square. As Jared Mitchell, 27, watches from the sidewalk, he is teary.
JARED MITCHELL: For somebody as big as her - if there was anybody that was as close to an angel walking among us, it was her. I know that everybody's brokenhearted about it.
MYERS: He works at Dollywood, the theme park Dolly Parton founded that employs 4,000 locally. He's worked there since high school and says she knew his name.
MITCHELL: We actually were part of the Imagination Library growing up. Dolly has touched our lives my entire life, so it really is a tragedy.
MYERS: The Imagination Library was her children's literacy project, mailing free books to children from birth. Tom Aitken lays another bouquet on top of the pile. His wife works at the women's wing of the local hospital, which Parton funded.
TOM AITKEN: If we didn't have her, people would be going to Knoxville because we wouldn't have that stuff available to women here in this community. And it's huge, so yes.
MYERS: Because of her, women can get mammograms and reproductive care locally. That's not even half the list. The money she gave to local victims of a deadly wildfire, for instance, or scholarships for local high school seniors to attend college, which her parents never got to do.
AITKEN: Her music's secondary to what she's done for this community.
MYERS: Dolly Parton's hometown will never forget her. And for all her years touring the globe, she never forgot where she came from, either.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME")
PARTON: (Singing) In my Tennessee mountain home, crickets sing in the fields nearby.
MYERS: For NPR News, I'm Katie Myers in Sevierville, Tennessee.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME")
PARTON: (Singing) Walking home from church on Sunday with the one you love, just laughing, talking, making future plans. And when the folks ain't looking, you might steal a kiss or two, sitting in the porch swing, holding hands. In my Tennessee mountain home... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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