Dolly Parton Keeps Rejecting the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Country queen Dolly Parton has always had a place in our hearts, and that place just keeps growing larger. In a recent interview with TODAY, the superstar revealed that she had been offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the Trump Administration not once but twice — and had to turn it down, first because of illness and then because of COVID restrictions. She also noted that while she’s heard from the Biden Administration about the award as well, she feels that if she takes it now, she’ll be “doing politics,” which has famously not been her thing.

While some may argue that endorsing certain candidates is the duty of any celebrity with a relatively large platform, Dolly Parton has always walked a path entirely of her own. She has supplied children all over the world with millions of books through her Imagination Library, she donated $1,000 per month to Tennessee families who lost their homes due to the wildfires in 2016 (note: that’s more than the government has done for us during a global health crisis), and most recently, she made a donation of $1 million dollars to help fund coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University. This money directly contributed to the making of the Moderna vaccine.

I am making a donation of $1 million to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.

— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) April 1, 2020

While Dolly Parton may not necessarily want to make waves by publicly endorsing politicians, it is undeniable that she’s an incredible philanthropist and national treasure — and has been for many, many years. This is the woman who wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day, who not-so-publicly produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer (both the film and the series!), and launched The Dollywood Foundation to help decrease the rate of high school dropouts in her home county.

When asked about the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she had this to say: “I don’t work for those awards. It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”

Do you think it’s time for Dolly Parton to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom?