CLEVELAND — Sept. 25, 2026, is Dolly Parton Day in Ohio, after a proclamation from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. The date 9/25 nods to Dolly’s iconic hit single “9 to 5.”
The governor, First Lady Fran DeWine and other guests celebrated the musician at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which had special activities set up Friday, including a house band playing Dolly’s music, a trivia contest and more.
“This is the proclamation that said Ohio is all in for 9-2-5 day today, Dolly Parton Day,” said Gov. DeWine as he held up the plaque in front of the gathered crowd.
The celebration highlighted her music, acting and philanthropy. It was an event fit for a celebrity whom many felt was their favorite aunt.
Nina Smith, visiting from North Carolina, smiled as she watched a video at the Rock Hall showing Dolly’s induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
“Everybody’s gotta love Dolly. I mean Dolly loved everyone,” Smith said. “Everyone loves Dolly. I mean we all got to be a little more like Dolly, right?”
The Rock Hall also invited visitors to play a Dolly-themed pinball machine and leave handwritten messages on a tribute wall.
All of it was for a woman with deep ties to Ohio, thanks in part to First Lady Fran DeWine’s mission to bring Dolly’s Imagination Library to more Ohio children. It’s a cause Fran told her husband she’d like to champion if he became governor.
“So as soon as Mike was elected governor, we started getting a partner in every single county,” Fran said.
To date, she said more than 28 million books have reached 432,000 children, and Ohio’s the only state where families can enroll at birth. Children get one free book a month that’s mailed to their home until age 5.
“And the great thing now is that we're really seeing our kindergarten readiness scores go up … and we know our kids are benefiting from these books,” Fran said. “So we know we're making the parents more involved in just reading her books to their kids. I heard Dolly say that you know with all her music and everything she really thinks her lasting legacy will be the books, and so I think that's just such a wonderful thing.”
On Friday, $2 from every general admission ticket will support the Literacy Cooperative, which is Cuyahoga County’s Imagination Library partner.
Cleveland City Council Member Brian Kazy said at the ceremony, “Her greatest legacy may be this: She never treated kindness as a weakness, and she never treated success as something to keep just to herself. She turned her story into a gift.”
Damon Maloney is a Cuyahoga County and We Follow Through anchor at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @DMaloneyTV, on Facebook DamonMaloneyTV or email him at Damon.Maloney@wews.com.
