That's due to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which in a 2023 expansion began providing books to Kansas children.
The Atchison County program partnership is overseen by the Atchison Rotary Club, with Treasurer Jacque Pregont telling MSC News there are, as of this current month of August, 467 Atchison County children receiving books from Dolly's library.
Partnered with the Rotary Club on behalf of the Imagination Library is the Atchison Public Library which, Pregont says, handles the signing-up of children aged birth to five years of age.
Pregont says an email was sent to program partners Tuesday, the day Parton's death at the age of 80 was announced. It read, Pregont said, that, "Dolly built the Imagination Library to last forever. It will continue."
Parton, in a past appearance on C-SPAN, explained that the origins of the library program began with her father, which later earned her the nickname, "The Book Lady," which Parton said he took pride in.
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