Dolly Parton's father grew up poor and never got the chance to learn to read.

Inspired by her upbringing, the 78-year-old country music legend has made it her mission over the past three decades to improve literacy through her Imagination Library book giveaway program. It has expanded statewide in places like Missouri and Kentucky, two of 21 states where all children under the age of 5 can enroll to have books mailed to their homes monthly.

To celebrate, she made stops Tuesday in both states to promote the program and tell the story of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who died in 2000.

“In the mountains, a lot of people never had a chance to go to school because they had to work on the farms,” she said at the Folly Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. “They had to do whatever it took to keep the rest of the family going.”

Parton, the fourth of 12 children from a poor Appalachian family, said her father was “one of the smartest people I’ve ever known,” but he was embarrassed that he couldn't read.

And so she decided to help other kids, initially rolling out the program in a single county in her home state of Tennessee in 1995. It spread quickly from there, and today over 3 million books are sent out each month. Since the program started, books have been sent to more than 240 million to kids in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.

Missouri covers the full cost of the program, which totaled $11 million in the latest fiscal year. Most of the other states chip in money through a cost-sharing model.

“The kids started calling me the ‘book lady,’” Parton said. “And Daddy was more proud of that than he was that I was a star. But Daddy got to feeling like he had really done something great as well.”

In Kentucky, the Imagination Library reaches children in all 120 counties, Gov. Andy Beshear said at an event Tuesday with Parton. More than 120,000 Kentucky children — nearly half of all preschoolers in the state — are currently enrolled to receive books through the program, first lady Britainy Beshear said.

It encourages families to read together, and it allows children to have their own personal library before starting kindergarten, at no cost to their families, the first lady said.

“It’s really a great way to teach children when they’re very young to learn to love books and to learn to read,” Parton said during the event in Lexington, Kentucky.

Parton, who earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award a decade ago, said she eventually wants to see the program in every state. While there is a presence in all of them, 21 have legislation ensuring all kids under 5 can enroll. She said she is proud that her dad lived long enough to see the program get off the ground.

“That was kind of my way to honor my dad, because the Bible says to honor your father and mother,” she said. “And I don’t think that just means, ‘just obey.’ I think it means to bring honor to their name and to them.”

Parton is an author herself whose titles include the 1996 children's book “Coat of Many Colors,” which is part of the book giveaway program.

As she prepared to sing her famous song by the same name, she explained that it is about a coat her mother made her from a patchwork of mismatched fabric, since the family was too poor to afford a large piece of a single fabric. Parton was proud of it because her mother likened it the multicolored coat that is told about in the Bible — a fantastic gift from Jacob to his son Joseph.

Classmates, however, laughed at her. For years, she said the experience was a “deep, deep hurt.”

She said that with writing and performing the song, “the hurt just left me.” She received letters over the years from people saying it did the same thing for them.

“The fact,” she explained, “that that little song has just meant so much not only to me, but to so many other people for so many different reasons, makes it my favorite song.”

Asked in Kentucky about her lasting legacy, Parton said she'd like to be remembered as “a good ole girl” who worked hard and tried to make people happy and the world a better place.

“Of course I want to be known as a songwriter and a singer, but I honestly can say that the Imagination Library has meant as much, if not more, to me than nearly anything that I’ve ever done,” she said.

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Mariah Carey's mother and sister died on the same day; singer says her 'heart is broken'

LOS ANGELES — Mariah Carey’s mother Patricia and sister Alison both died on the same day, the singer said Monday.

“My heart is broken that I’ve lost my mother this past weekend. Sadly, in a tragic turn of events, my sister lost her life on the same day,” the Grammy-winning singer said in a statement.

“I feel blessed that I was able to spend the last week with my mom before she passed,” the statement continued. “I appreciate everyone’s love and support and respect for my privacy during this impossible time.”

The Times Union reported Monday that Alison, who was largely estranged from Carey, died at 63 from complications with her organ function and that she had been in hospice care.

People Magazine first reported the news of their deaths and Carey’s statement.

Patricia was a Juilliard-trained opera singer who Carey credits as an inspiration to her from a young age.

“I would sing little tunes around the house, to my mother’s delight. And she always encouraged me,” she wrote in her 2020 memoir, “The Meaning of Mariah Carey.”

Patricia was previously married to Alfred Roy Carey, the singer’s father. The parents divorced when the “Vision of Love” singer was 3. Carey grew up in Suffolk County on Long Island and lived primarily with her mother after her parents’ divorce. Her father died of cancer in 2002 at age 72.

Carey detailed her complicated relationship with her mother and her sister in her memoir, in which she wrote that she and her mother often clashed, causing her to feel “so much pain and confusion,” and accused her sister of putting her in unsafe situations as a child.

“Like many aspects of my life, my journey with my mother has been full of contradictions and competing realities. It’s never been only black-and-white — it’s been a whole rainbow of emotions,” Carey wrote in the book. “Our relationship is a prickly rope of pride, pain, shame, gratitude, jealousy, admiration and disappointment. A complicated love tethers my heart to my mother’s.”

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Rapper Lil Baby arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of concealed weapon violation

LAS VEGAS — Rapper Lil Baby was arrested in Las Vegas after police accused him of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

The Atlanta-born rapper, whose real name is Dominique Jones, was taken into custody on the Las Vegas Strip just before dawn Monday, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Details about what led to the arrest weren't immediately released.

His attorneys, Drew Findling and David Chesnoff, said in joint a statement that they were “actively investigating” why the 29-year-old rapper had been arrested in the first place despite having a valid permit in Georgia to carry a concealed weapon.

Lil Baby has not been formally charged with the crime, which is a felony in Nevada, and was released from custody after posting bond, court records show. He is due in court in Las Vegas on Oct. 1.

The Grammy Award-winning rapper topped charts with his 2020 sophomore album “My Turn,” and reached the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his hit “The Bigger Picture,” which evokes the killing of George Floyd and other police abuse.

Other hits include “Yes Indeed,” featuring Drake, and “Drip Too Hard.” He also won best male hip-hop artist in 2021 at the BET Awards and was named 2020's artist of the year at the Apple Music Awards.

From combined wire services