The Little Library That Could - Today In Country Music History

December 12th, 2003

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, in its seventh year, donated its one-millionth book, The Little Engine That Could, to the parents of a one-year-old in Danville, Alabama.

In 1995, Dolly Parton launched Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, to benefit the children of her home county in East Tennessee, USA. Dolly's vision was to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. By mailing high quality, age-appropriate books directly to their homes, she wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.

Dolly’s Imagination Library became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced that she would make the program available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with her to support it locally. Since the initial program launch in the United States, Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has gone from just a few dozen books to over 60,000,000 books mailed to children in the United States, into Canada and across the proverbial pond into the United Kingdom! Currently over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to over 750,000 children each and every month.

Keep Up With Oklahoma's Best Country KLAW101

2011
Taylor Swift was named Billboard magazine’s Artist of the Year for Country Music for overall album, singles and concert sales.
2005
Kenny Chesney’s The Road And The Radio went gold, platinum and double-platinum simultaneously. The album featured the singles "Living in Fast Forward" (#1), "Who You'd Be Today" (#2), "You Save Me" (#3), "Summertime" (#1) and "Beer in Mexico" (#1).
The album has since been certified 3x platinum by the RIAA.
1988
Waylon Jennings underwent triple bypass surgery at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.
1957
Jerry Lee Lewis secretly marries his 13-year-old cousin Myra Brown in Hernando, Mississippi, though he is not yet divorced from his second wife. His career is damaged when he reveals the news in England
#1 On This Date
SINGLES
2009 – Lady Antebellum – “Need You Now”
1998 – Faith Hill – “Let Me Go”
1992 – George Strait – “I Cross My Heart”
1987 – Reba McEntire – “The Last One To Know”
1981 – George Jones – “Still Doin’ Time”
1970 – Sonny James – “Endlessly”
1964 – Connie Smith – “Once A Day”
1960 – Ferlin Huskey – “Wings of a Dove”
1953 – Webb Pierce– “There Stands The Glass”

ALBUMS
2011 – Scotty McCreary – Clear As Day
2005 – Kenny Chesney – The Road And The Radio
1994 – Tim McGraw – Not A Moment Too Soon
1988 – Ricky Van Shelton – Loving Proof
1983 – Kenny Rogers – Eyes That See In The Dark
1977 – Elvis Presley – Elvis In Concert
1966 – Merle Haggard –Swinging Doors
Birthdays
Singer-songwriter Katrina Elam is 31.

The Little Library That Could – Today In Country Music History [VIDEO]