Flags across Washington state will fly at half-staff until Sept. 1 to honor the life of country music icon and philanthropist Dolly Parton.
Gov. Bob Ferguson directed flags to be lowered immediately after the announcement of Parton’s death in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday. Parton, 80, died after a fight with cancer, her publicist said.
The nearly weeklong statewide directive comes alongside President Donald Trump’s order to fly flags at the White House and across the nation at half-staff “as a mark of respect for the memory of Dolly Parton” until Sept. 1 as well.
Beyond her glamour, gift of gab and generational songwriting, Parton was a philanthropist and brought her Imagination Library, which provides children from birth to age five free books every month, to Washington in 2023.
Rocking a rhinestone-encrusted black guitar, Parton — whom the Library of Congress called a “titan of children’s literacy” and earned the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy — took the stage at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma that August to celebrate her organization’s expansion into the state.
Lt. Gov. Denny Heck proclaimed Aug. 15 “Imagination Library of Washington Day.”
The Imagination Library of Washington announced July 31 that its services would be restored across the state after it received two crucial grants from the Roots & Wings Foundation for $3 million over the next two years, and a tiered contribution from the John and Tami Marick Family Foundation.
The organization once covered all 39 counties across the state, but the state’s operating budget did not support its 50% share of book costs for this fiscal year while local funding dried up, so services were paused in several regions, the Imagination Library of Washington said.
These grants will stabilize the organization’s 50% book-cost match and restore access to free monthly books for about 40,000 children, bringing statewide enrollment to an excess of 100,000 children.
