Dolly Parton gives 500,000 dollars for new hospital

Dolly Parton told thousands of fans at a benefit concert that she was not as important as a new hospital for her native county in Tennessee.

Photo: Dolly Parton gives 500,000 dollars for new hospital

The estimated $500,000 (371,913 EUR) raised Sunday will go to a new Fort Sanders Sevier Medical Center, cancer center and medical office.

Thanking the audience, the country singer said, "I ain't worth it, but the folks in Sevier County are."

Parton's Dollywood theme park and Dixie Stampede dinner theater also pledged $250,000 (185,956 EUR) each to the $110 million (81.8 million EUR) project, The Knoxville News Sentinel reported.

The country artist and actress is passionate about the new hospital to honor the country doctor who brought her into the world.

"He's the one that rode on horseback so many years ago, when I was a young'un back in them mountains," Parton, 61, said of Dr. Robert F. Thomas. "I was born and paid for with a sack of cornmeal."