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The late Dolly Parton is known for her larger-than-life personality, decades-long country music career, and seemingly endless generosity. But one of her most consequential gifts came in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic after most of the U.S. was sent under lockdown.
“My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure,” Parton wrote on social media in April 2020. “I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.”
“Keep the faith,” she added.
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center, based in her home state of Tennessee, was working with pharmaceutical giant Moderna—which went on to develop one of the most widely used vaccinations. Parton later said she was surprised to learn about the connection, but was happy to also become an unlikely face of vaccine confidence among skeptics.
“It was a big shock,” she told PEOPLE at the time. “Everybody was calling congratulating me, and I was saying, ‘Well, for what?’ And then of course my fans took it and ran with it: ‘I’m getting the Dolly vaccine! I’m getting the Dolly juice!’ I guess they thought if Dolly got it, it might be pretty safe.”
Overall, more than 250 million people globally received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, while COVID vaccinations as a whole are estimated to have saved at least 14 million lives in the first year of their rollout alone. But Parton was quick to downplay her role, maintaining that her contribution was minimal.
“I got more credit than I deserved,” she added. “I was just trying to put my money where my heart is.”
Parton’s net worth was estimated at $450 million at the time of her passing, built on an empire spanning music as well as beauty, apparel, kitchenware, and her East Tennessee theme park, Dollywood.
Fortune reached out to Moderna for comment.
Parton amassed a $450 million fortune—but she spent much of her life giving it away
Philanthropy has been core to Parton throughout her life, in part because she knew what it was like to go without. She grew up with 11 siblings in a small cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains with no running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing. Their mother, Avie Lee, would sew scraps of fabric together to make clothes for the family.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, never learned to read or write, but he became the inspiration for Dolly’s education work. In 1995, she started Imagination Library, mailing free books to children in her home county. It has since exploded into a global operation, delivering more than 3 million books a month across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, and Australia. In total, the program has now shipped more than 300 million books.
Her approach to giving was rooted in the lessons she learned growing up: “Just remember the lessons my family taught me,” Parton said in a video for her Imagination Library. “Dream big dreams, and learn everything you can. And care for those who care for you—you do all of these things and you can be anyone you want to be.”
She’s also given away millions of dollars to natural disaster relief over the years—raising $700,000 for flood victims near her home in 2021, and contributing $1 million toward Hurricane Helene recovery in East Tennessee in 2024, on top of another $1 million from her businesses and the Dollywood Foundation.
In addition to the $1 million for COVID-19 vaccine research, she gave another $1 million to the Vanderbilt medical system in 2022 for pediatric infectious-disease research. It was the same hospital system where Parton died this week after a brief battle with cancer.
“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving,” Parton told PEOPLE in 2021. “Knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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