- The country music legend told The Today Show that Trump twice presented her with the presidential medal of freedom.
- Both times she rejected it, citing family illnesses and COVID.
- The Biden administration also approached her about the award, but she said she did not want to be considered ‘political’.
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Dolly Parton revealed to The Today Show that she was presented with the presidential medal of freedom on two separate occasions by former President Donald Trump, but that she had to beg both times.
“I could not accept it because my husband was ill, and then they asked me about it again and I would not travel because of the COVID,” she told host Hoda Kotb.
Parton is much loved for her musical career and the many charity projects she has undertaken in recent years. In November, she donated $ 1 million to Vanderbilt University to support research on coronavirus vaccines. She previously gave $ 1 million to Vanderbilt to buy the Monroe Carell Jr. Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital to fund.
Her most famous charity project is perhaps her Imagination Library, a charity she founded in 1990 that offers children one free book a month from birth to adulthood. In the first months of the pandemic, she used the Imagination Library platform to read bedtime stories to children who were not in school.
Trump is not the only president hoping to offer Parton a freedom medal. The eight-time Grammy winner told Today that the new administration has reached out to her, but that she is concerned about how the Biden award could be viewed.
“Now I feel like I’ll take politics if I take it, so I’m not sure,” she said.
In a Stephen Colbert interview in 2020 with former President Barack Obama, Obama said it was a “mistake” that his office did not honor Parton.
The presidential medal of freedom was established in 1945 and is the country’s highest civilian honor. It is awarded for ‘particularly deserving contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace or cultural or other important public or private efforts’, according to the National Archives.
Trump handed out 24 presidential medals of freedom during his tenure, although the late Elvis Presley was the only other musician to receive one. Rush Limbaugh, Tiger Woods and Representative Jim Jordan were among those honored by the former president.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was also offered the award, but turned it down after the January 6 uprising at the Capitol.