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.”
