08/26/2026
August 25 marks the deaths of two women whose influence reached far beyond their own lifetimes.
Mary Ball Washington died on August 25, 1789, after a long illness now understood to have been breast cancer. Earlier that year, her eldest son, George Washington, had traveled to Fredericksburg to visit her before leaving Virginia to assume the presidency. Washington described the visit as possibly the “last Act of personal duty” he would be able to pay his mother. Mary lived long enough to see the son born at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County lead the Continental Army to independence and become the first president of the United States.
On August 25, 2026, America also lost Dolly Parton. Her influence came through music, storytelling, generosity, and a lifelong commitment to helping others. Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write, she established Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995. What began in her home county in Tennessee grew into an international program that placed hundreds of millions of free books into the hands of young children.
Mary Washington raised an American president. Dolly Parton encouraged generations of children to read, imagine, and believe their beginnings did not have to determine their futures. Their lives were separated by centuries, but each offers a reminder that influence is not measured only by public office or formal authority. It is also found in the people we prepare, the opportunities we create, and what we make possible for those who follow us.
Today, we remember Mrs. Washington and offer a heartfelt farewell to Dolly Parton, two women whose legacies became part of the larger American story.
Historical note: The familiar account of Mary giving George her final blessing was recorded decades later by George Washington Parke Custis. Washington’s own writing confirms the final visit, but the longer conversation should be treated as a later recollection rather than a contemporary transcript.
Photo credits: Dolly Parton, 1970s. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Mary Ball Washington. Public domain image from the Library of Congress, accessed through George Washington Birthplace National Monument, National Park Service.
