8 Dollywood Dolly

Chapter 8 Dollywood Dolly Dolly Parton is talented in so many different ways. She is also a very smart businesswoman. People call her "the Iron Butterfly." That means she looks delicate but is tough. In 2004 The Wall Street Journal called her "one of the most important women in the world for business and industry." Dolly runs a huge group of businesses called Dolly Parton Enterprises. She has had her own record, movie-production, and music-publishing companies. She even owns theme parks! She has invested in real estate, restaurants, dinner theaters, radio stations, farm equipment, hardware stores, garden centers, and macadamia nuts! Dolly makes sensible and intelligent business decisions. Many years ago, Elvis Presley wanted to buy the rights to her song, "I Will Always

Love You." Elvis would have owned it. But Dolly said no. Since then she has made millions of dollars on just that one song. Many performers have recorded it. The version by Whitney Houston is the most famous. According to Dolly, that one has made so much money that Dolly could have bought Graceland, Elvis's home! Of all her businesses, Dolly is proudest of

Dollywood. That is her theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near where she grew up. It's like a big country fair. There are merry-gorounds, roller coasters, and bumper cars. There's a theater where some of Dolly's relatives perform. Nearby, people Dolly calls "skillbillies" demonstrate country skills like blacksmithing, weaving, glass-blowing, and leather-working. There is even a steam-powered saw mill and a life-size mountain homestead. The Southern Gospel Hall of Fame is there, too. Nearby is Dollywood's Splash Country, Tennessee's largest water park, and Dolly's Dixie Stampede, a dinner theater she touts "is the most fun place to eat in the Smokies." With over four million visitors a year, Dollywood and Splash Country have created a

lot of jobs for local people. Money from the parks helps fund the Dollywood Foundation. It is a charity that inspires kids to read and stay in school. Dolly Parton never liked school much. But she understands the importance of a good education. In Sevier County, Tennessee, a lot of kids were dropping out of high school. Through the Dollywood Foundation, Dolly started giving students five-hundred dollars if they graduated. That cut the dropout rate in half. The Foundation also provided scholarships, computer labs for schools, and clothes and school supplies for needy kids. Dolly had seen how not being able to read had held back her dad. In 1996, Dolly started her Imagination Library. It gave a book a month to every child in Sevier County from birth to school age. Since then, more than sixty million books have

been handed out in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Kids call Dolly "the Book Lady." She's proud to be known by that name. Then in 2009 she got an honorary doctorate from the University of Tennessee... so now she's also Dr. Dolly Parton! Dolly has supported the Red Cross, HIV/AIDS charities, a hospital charity, and charities for animals like the American Eagle Foundation. She believes in the right of gay people to marry and says so, which caused her

trouble with some fans. But Dolly puts her beliefs first. Her motto is "Dream more, learn more, care more, and be more."