Dolly Parton gives $100K to this SC hospital. Here’s why and how it’s using the money
Spartanburg Regional Medical Center will open a $55 million hospital in Union next week to replace one founded as Wallace Thomson Hospital in 1921, and patients and visitors will see a healing garden near the entrance paid for by Dolly Parton.
Parton’s mother Avie Lee Parton was born in 1923 in Lockhart in the northern part of Union County along the Broad River.
At a ribbon cutting Monday, a video of Parton was played in which she said she hopes the garden will be a “place of peace, hope, love, and comfort for patients, families and other community members who visit the hospital,” the Spartanburg Herald Journal reported.
The newspaper said the connection with Parton came about through a cousin Donna Cudd. Records show Cudd is a former probate judge in Union County.
In the video, Parton said, “Union holds a very special place in my heart. My family’s roots in this area run deep.”
Parton has credited her mother as her first musical influence. Parton wrote the song “Coat of Many Colors” about her mother.
Parton says on her website, “After the song had become a hit and had done so much for my career, I wanted to go back home and repay Mama for all the love she had sewn into my coat. I said, ‘Mama, let’s go to Knoxville. I’m going to buy you a mink coat.’
“Mama is the type of person who is somewhat uncomfortable about somebody making her an offer like that. At first, she came back with a joke: ‘It’s bad enough we have to eat little varmints ... I don’t want to have to start wearing them ... ’ Then she took on a more serious tone as she said, ‘Shoot! Where would I wear a mink coat ... to a pie supper? Give me the money instead.’ So I did.”
Among the many musical contributions Avie Lee Parton made for her daughter through the years was to write down the lyrics to Dolly Parton’s first song, which she sang on the front porch of the family home before she could read or write.
It was about a corncob doll Avie Lee made for Dolly and was called “Little Tiny Tasseltop,” Parton’s website says.
Avie Lee Owens Parton died at 80 on Dec. 5, 2003.
Parton’s Dolly Parton Enterprises donated $100,000 for the garden, which has benches, plants, flowers and a fountain.
Parton is known for her philanthropy, most especially Imagination Library, which has given 264 million books to children from birth to age 5 since 1995. It began with her home county in Tennessee and now includes partnerships around the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.
She also offers free college tuition and all expenses for employees of Dollywood, a theme park in Sevierville, Tennessee that opened in 1986.
The former Union Medical Center is about 5 miles south of the new facility, which will open Feb. 11. It will include doctors offices for an array of services, including imaging, Gibbs Cancer Center infusion services, Bearden-Josey Center for Breast Health mammography services and primary care.
Also large donation givers to Union Medical Center were J. Carlisle Oxner III and Barbara Harter Rippy.
Oxner, chairman and president at Arthur State Bank, donated $200,000, and Rippy, who owned Smith’s Drug Store with her husband Dr. Bobby Gene Rippy, donated $100,000.
Their donations went toward a 1-mile walking trail, a chapel and gardens.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 6:00 AM.