In several cities and states in the US this is 9-2-5 or 9 to 5 Day, a play on words, or numbers, to honour the late, great entertainer and philanthropist, Dolly Parton. September 25, 9/25 -- get it? Dolly died a month ago at the age of 80 and lots of fans were shocked. She didn't make a big deal about her illnesses and offered assurances to those who were concerned about her health.
I was never much of a fan of her music because it leaned country, although she was eventually elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This honour was as much about how admired she was in the music world generally. She wrote and sang hits for herself and there were highly successful covers by other musicians -- think Whitney Houston. Her 9 to 5 working life anthem was central to a highly successful comedy film of the same name in which she starred.
I have certainly admired Dolly Parton through the years for her astonishing philanthropy and acceptance of people from all backgrounds without judgement. She grew up in a "hell fire and brimstone" Pentecostal church and knew that wasn't for her. But she was open about her Christian faith and how it kept her grounded in a crazy industry. She recorded several Gospel albums.
Her generosity was legendary even though she wasn't inclined to draw attention to herself. According to RNS:
In the 1990s, Parton created a program to give free books to children as a tribute to her father, who was unable to read or write. Her Imagination Library has donated more than 300 million books across the globe. In a 2018 interview, she also cited the Bible as inspiration for this program. “In the Bible, where it talks about honor your father and mother, … I think means to bring honor to their name.” In more recent years, she gave a $1 million donation for COVID-19 research that was partly used to fund the Moderna vaccine and announced a similar donation to help victims of Hurricane Helene, which affected Tennessee, her home state, and six others in 2024, People magazine reported.
When we were on rather remote Change Islands, Newfoundland, in August a neighbour, a big Parton fan, told us that she had received Imagination Library books when she was a child.
In 2022 Amazon's Jeff Bezos gave Parton 100 million dollars to further her philanthropic efforts.
Our oldest grandchild, now in his teens, was obsessed with the song Jolene when he was two and three, insisting that we play it whenever he was in our vehicle. I was so grateful when that phase ended.
I figure Dolly would have made an excellent President but of course the States would never choose an entertainer as a governor or a president...
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