Dolly Parton’s best friend hears her ‘haunting voice in my head’ as he continues legacy

When Dolly Parton died, Jeff Conyers lost both a dear friend and his mentor – but she’s still guiding him (Picture: Jeff Conyers) ‘Hey, look! Don’t spend too much time crying over me; you need to get back to work.’ Those are the words Dolly Parton’s right-hand man hears her saying as he continues her philanthropic endeavours following the country music icon’s death. When Dolly died on August 25, what followed was a global, unprecedented outpouring of grief. Sobbing fans gathered in the hundreds outside her home, historic landmarks like the Empire State Building were illuminated pink, and US flags were lowered to half-mast in her honour. But while we all felt we’d lost someone special, as her work touched millions of lives, for Jeff Conyers, it was far more personal. Jeff joined Dolly’s Foundation in 2011 and became its president and vice chair. While he’s been the brains behind its planning, strategy, and finance, he also formed a deep bond with the woman herself, and they became best friends – well, they became family. Speaking exclusively to Metro from the British Library, celebrating the expansion of her Imagination Library thanks to new funding from players of the Postcode Lottery, Jeff affectionately recalls both his personal and working relationship with Dolly, whose messages still ‘haunt’ him as he ‘carries the torch’ in her absence. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Jeff was Dolly’s right-hand man for 16 years, and they became like family (Picture: Jeff Conyers) He jokes: ‘She was a worker, and she had us all working – we were well beyond 9 to 5, trust me! ‘She was 80 years old and ran us all in circles.’ Jeff had initially wondered what exactly motivated Dolly. He says she woke up at 3am to ‘start creating’ and continued working for hours; he was ‘in awe’ of how driven she was, despite her vast range of accomplishments in music, acting, and her personal life. ‘When I first met her, I wondered, “Who in the world is this woman, and where does she get this from?”,’ he reflects. ‘And it hit me one day when I was listening to her talk – it was gratitude. She was so grateful to come from where she came from, against all odds, and showed up in Nashville with everything she owned in a paper sack and a guitar, just like so many artists still do today, and she was one in a million. Maybe one in one hundred million that made it. ‘She saw her wildest dreams come true, so she would often say, “I feel like I owe it back.” So, she worked and worked and loved every minute because she was grateful to have the opportunity to do it.’ Thanks to Postcode Lottery players, £5million has been raised to expand the Imagination Library (Picture: Laura Halse) Jeff celebrated the expansion at the British Library (Picture: Laura Halse) Jeff feels the ‘spirit’ of Dolly guiding him as he continues her legacy (Picture: Laura Halse) Jeff met Dolly while working for Tennessee’s governor, who heard about her Imagination Library initiative and wanted every child in the State to participate, receiving free books in the mail each month from birth until their fifth birthday. From there, he was invited by the Queen of Country to play a key role in the scheme’s expansion, and 16 years later, it’s grown internationally. To date, over 300 million books have been gifted worldwide. ‘It was a really organic thing, getting to know her, and we became close over the years, because it’s something so close to her heart. She poured so much of herself into it, just like she did her music,’ Jeff shares. Dolly always fondly said Imagination Library was her proudest project, inspired by her own father, who never learned to read. ‘The last few weeks have been quite hard,’ he admits. ‘It’s been quite a tearful few weeks. I feel like I’ve lost a dear friend. I know the world feels like they’ve lost a dear friend, but it has been challenging to not have her here.’ Still, the ‘spirit’ of Dolly is very much guiding Jeff, as well as the connection with her surviving relatives, with whom he’s expecting to work. Growing tearful during our chat, he says he’s ‘cried every day’ since Dolly died from cancer, noting that there have been numerous points where she’s seemingly shown herself to him, such as the meeting he had with a young girl this morning, who handed him a yellow crayon, which was Dolly’s favourite colour. The Queen of Country died on August 25, aged 80, following a string of health challenges (Picture: Reuters) Her death has taken a toll on his own children, too, aged 12 and 14, who have never known a life without her, making it their first significant family loss. And while Dolly famously opted for a fax machine over text messages, a call was never off the table for Jeff, who was told he could phone her at any time. ‘We would chat back and forth about various things, always there to be a friend if you needed her to be. We would always say “I love you” when hanging up the phone.’ He praises: ‘She was such a great friend and teacher, even though she didn’t try to be those things. She just was them. So I hear her voice all the time, leading through what has been a difficult period for all of us. ‘But at the same time, it’s a great responsibility to carry forward what she created, so we pull ourselves together and get on with the show, just like she would.’ Jeff was aware of Dolly’s health challenges, which forced her to postpone performances and appearances in her final years, following the death of her beloved husband, Carl Dean, in March 2025. Pictured here in 2007, when her Imagination Library began, Dolly was proud to be known as the Book Lady (Picture: Rui Vieira/PA Wire) She started the programme in honour of her father, who never learned to read (Picture: Shannon Finney/Getty Images) Reminiscing on their last meeting, he says Dolly was ‘cosied up on the couch’ at her place, wearing ‘really comfy clothes’, and even then, she was still making plans for the Imagination Library. ‘We knew she was going through health challenges for quite some time, but she always had the mindset of, “Well, I will get past this thing, and then we’ll get back to normal here and be on our way!” And that’s how we left it.’ ‘The last time I spoke with her, we were talking about planning for the future, the Imagination Library, her personal philanthropy, and all the things that she wanted to continue to do, both now and into the future,’ he reveals. We pull ourselves together and get on with the show, just like she would Quote Quote ‘And she fully expected to be a part of that future for many, many years, as did we, but it didn’t turn out to be that way; that doesn’t mean she doesn’t live with us in spirit. All this stuff she’s created will continue into the future.’ Among those plans is the UK extension of the Imagination Library, thanks to £5million of additional funding, raised by Postcode Lottery players. This money will allow the programme to reach a new generation, with approximately 157,000 children across Wandsworth, Camden, Hackney, Greenwich, Lewisham, Newham, and Barking and Dagenham now eligible to receive a monthly book. In total, almost two million books could be delivered to homes in the capital annually, marking a joyous new chapter for the endeavour that represents one of Dolly’s legacies in a simple way: open a book with a child and make time for a story. Her philanthropic efforts changed millions of lives – and will long outlive us all (Picture: USA Today Network via Imagn Images) ‘It’s really exciting for us,’ says Jeff. ‘I call the Imagination Library one of Dolly’s “heart projects”, and we had programmes in Lambeth, Suffolk, and the City of London, but now this will allow us to open up to seven boroughs around the city.’ He adds that Dolly never could’ve foreseen how successful Imagination Library would become, despite being ‘one of the biggest dreamers [he’s] ever met’. In the US, 1 out of 6 children under five are enrolled, and the ambition is to reach ‘every family’ in the UK. Dolly also poked fun at how she ‘got a lot of credit for the work other people were doing’, but there’s no denying that she, the adored Book Lady, was keen for everything she did to outlive her. ‘She wanted the Imagination Library to be around for generations to come, so the Foundations and partnerships were all created with the future in mind. ‘It’s a big legacy to carry forward, but it’s a great opportunity to carry something so meaningful for her.’ Postcode Lottery players have raised £5million for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, helping the programme reach a new generation of approximately 157,000 children across seven boroughs in London. They will receive a free book every month from birth until the age of five. 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