Dolly Parton Joins Niece in Visiting Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital

Dolly Parton joined her niece, Hannah Dennison, at the Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville on Thursday, May 17. The country music icon was on hand to help Dennison, a childhood leukemia survivor, in the dedication of hospital’s newly named Hannah Dennison Butterfly Garden.

“This really is a special day for all of us,” Parton said (quote via Nashville’s Tennessean). “We’ve been really looking forward to this. We’re so happy to have our Hannah.”

Dennison, who will turn 30 on Sunday (May 20), spent several of her childhood years in and out of the hospital, which makes the Butterfly Garden that much more special.

“For five years, we didn’t know exactly if we’d be keeping her or not,” Parton recalled. “But Hannah stands here as our ‘Chemo Hero.’”

Parton was so inspired by Dennison’s journey, she wrote “Chemo Hero,” which is included on her recent I Believe in You children’s album. She also donated $1 million to Monroe Carrel Jr. Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Cancer Program in Dennison’s honor.

The 72-year-old has certainly been making her rounds. She recently made a surprise appearance at the newly-renamed My People Senior Activity Center, in her hometown of Sevier County, in honor of her late parents, Robert and Avie Lee Parton.

“I’m so honored and so proud to be here, and I want to thank everybody that’s had a part in this. For years, I talked about my brothers and my sisters, my mom and dad and my aunts, uncles, cousins, and I call them my people,” Parton explained.

“Now of course, when I started Dollywood and the employees there, I thought of them as my family, and they became my people, and of course when we … actually got involved in the fires up here in the heart of the Smokies. We call that My People,” continued the singer. “I’m looking out at you, and I think you are, all of you, you’re my people, and this is great, and I’m so proud and so honored that I’m a Smoky Mountain girl, and I’m so proud of my home, and I’m so proud of my family.”

Parton is also working on the music for a new movie, Dumplin’, starring Jennifer Aniston, part of a non-stop career that continues to gain momentum more than 50 years after her debut Hello, I’m Dolly album was released.

“People ask, ‘How do you work all the time?’ Because I dreamed myself into a corner and I have to be responsible to those dreams,” Parton said. “And I couldn’t be happier, because every dream I have brings on a new dream, like a tree with deep roots and branches and a lot of leaves, and every time something happens it makes something else happens. I like being there, but it is a big responsibility.”

Photo Credit: Facebook/Dolly Parton