By Barbara Soderlin

Every graduation season, we hear about celebrities earning honorary doctoral degrees. Dolly Parton’s been working 9 to 5, and longer, for decades, and finally earned hers. Not only is she an amazing performer, but she’s involved in a program to encourage early childhood literacy.

Here’s the story:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Award-winning entertainer, businesswoman and education advocate Dolly Parton has a new title.
“Just think, I am Dr. Dolly!” she said Friday after receiving an honorary doctorate of humane and musical letters from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Always joking about her buxom figure, she added, “So when people say something about ‘Double-D,’ they will be thinking of something entirely different.”
The audience of 1,069 new graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences roared with laughter and gave Parton a standing ovation.
Parton, a Tennessee native who is the fourth of 12 children from a poor Appalachian family, is well-known for her philanthropic work. Her Imagination Library sends a book to about 500,000 children each month from birth until they start school.

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