SEVIERVILLE \u2014 Dolly Parton is known for her philanthropic efforts around the world, but perhaps nowhere more than right at home in her beloved Sevier County.<\/p>\n
From healthcare in Sevier County to making an impact with the local youth, Parton has made giving back to her hometown a priority. Those who were touched by her generous spirit and love for the community were remembering her kindness after learning of her death on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
“She had such a tremendous impact on the quality of healthcare in Sevier County. Really there are no words to express the difference she truly made,” said Ellen Wilhoit, retired executive director of Leadership Sevier, who was president and chief administrative officer for LeConte Medical Center many years as well as its predecessor Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center.<\/p>\n
“I had the pleasure of being with her when she saw we had a great need for a birth center at the old Fort Sanders Sevier Medical. She got behind that and donated a million, which was so much money back then, toward building that so the women of Sevier County could have a new place to labor and deliver their babies.”<\/p>\n
Wilhoit said Sevier County residents Linda Ogle and Emily Kile got behind the effort to see a new birthing unit and then Dolly, through the Dr. Thomas Foundation, cane in and gave the money.<\/p>\n
What impressed Wilhoit was how much Dolly cared about the women who gave birth in the unit, as she visited each one of those in rooms that day prior to the ribbon cutting. She made sure she got each name before entering and recalled it after only being told one time.<\/p>\n
She sang a song to each new mother, including their name in each version of the tune. She even sang to a grandmother who was visiting in one room.<\/p>\n
“She said ‘I don’t know anything about birthing no babies, but could I hold one?’ She got a picture with every patient. They didn’t know what to do. They teared up and clapped and were so excited,” Wilhoit said.<\/p>\n
“She made every person she met feel like they were the most important person in the world when she met them. She really loved this community and she loved making a difference and she didn’t want any credit for it.”<\/p>\n
Her efforts often focused on the youth of Sevier County, work that spread across the nation and worldwide with the creation of Imagination Library, which helps provide books for children from birth to age five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEVIERVILLE \u2014 Dolly Parton is known for her philanthropic efforts around the world, but perhaps nowhere more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[93,56507,42],"class_list":["post-267328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-lebanon","tag-mtjuliet","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117169131539150970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}