Poor singer from the Smokey Mountains with a heart of gold

DOLLY Parton, who has an estimated fortune of more than £500 million, was one of a family of 12 children born into poverty in Tennessee's Smokey Mountains.

She has never forgotten the circumstances she grew up in and has given large sums to charities, while she co-owns a 150-acre theme park in her home state which boosts the region's economy.

In 1995, she set up the Imagination Library to combat child illiteracy in her home town in Sevier County. It proved so successful neighbouring communities asked to join and it spread across the United States. About 30 million books have now been mailed by the Dollywood Foundation to children in more than 1,300 communities worldwide.

The project began in the UK in Rotherham in 2007 and now operates in a dozen areas, delivering more than 15,000 books each month.

The Scottish project is the first to run on a national basis, purely for children in care.

Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, is the largest employer in the area. It attracts more than 2.5 million visitors a year.