Governor joins push to rename airport for Dolly Parton
More than 150,000 people, including singer Sheryl Crow, had signed an online petition for the change as of Friday afternoon, and now Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is on board.
An effort to rename Nashville International Airport for Dolly Parton has exploded since her death Tuesday.
More than 150,000 people, including singer Sheryl Crow, had signed an online petition for the change as of Friday afternoon, and now Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee has backed the effort.
Tributes have poured out globally since Parton, the country music superstar, actor. and philanthropist, died at 80 after a battle with cancer. She is especially beloved in Tennessee, her home state, where vigils, singalongs, and tribute performances have taken place.
“We want the love, acceptance, and good times that Dolly espoused to be what people experience when arriving in Tennessee for the first time, or coming home,” said Lydia Popovich, a 49-year-old comedian and lifelong fan. She started the petition last year with the photographer Dan Dion, and the number of signatures has more than doubled since Parton’s death.
“Dolly represented the best of Tennessee, and the best of what we can be as human beings,” Popovich added. “Who doesn’t want to be ‘departin’ from Parton’?”
The airport has already leaned into celebrating the city’s roster of music stars and celebrities, featuring outposts of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Grand Ole Opry, and some downtown music venues. The outpouring of support for a Dolly Parton rebranding has not gone unnoticed by local and state lawmakers.
Lee, a Republican, said Friday that he would put a proposal before the state-run airport authority at its next meeting, in September, to rename the airport. He did so, he said, after consulting with Parton’s team.
“At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state’s favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith, and kindness,” Lee said in a statement.
The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, which oversees the airport and controls its name, has rules that prohibit naming any property after a person who has not been dead for at least two years. The policy also dictates that the honoree should have contributed to aviation in Tennessee or made a “substantial personal contribution” to the airport authority.
The Sept. 17 meeting will also include discussions about changing the naming policy in order to accommodate plans to rename the airport for Parton, Lee’s office said in a statement.
Since Parton’s death, the authority has received several inquiries about renaming the airport, a spokesperson said.
There were also questions about whether Tennessee politics would add to the bureaucratic tangle: Local and state leaders are battling over who oversees the airport. The Republican supermajority in the General Assembly approved a law this year giving the state power over major municipal airports. Nashville leaders have challenged the law and refuse to recognize the state-controlled authority.
The General Assembly does not convene again until January. But lawmakers stressed they were considering a number of ways — including airport renaming — to commemorate a figure who is broadly cherished in the state.
“We will work with legislative leaders, as well as the Parton family, to find the most fitting way to honor Dolly’s extraordinary legacy in a manner that will reflect her and her family wishes,” Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican, said in a statement.
At least one state senator, Jessie Seal, also a Republican, has proposed legislation naming Sept. 25 as “9 to 5” Day, in honor of Parton’s famous anthem.
The United States already has numerous airports named in honor of performers and athletes: Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport; John Wayne Airport, in Orange County, Calif.; and Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky among them.
Only a few U.S. regional airports or airport facilities are named solely for women. Examples include Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport in Atchison, Kan., and Barbara Jordan Terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas.
Major international airports rarely change names. The most recent example, Palm Beach International Airport in Florida was renamed President Donald J. Trump International Airport in July.
Nashville International has only had its current name since 1988. The airport opened in 1937 as Berry Field — after Col. Harry S. Berry, a World War I veteran who ran the Works Progress Administration in Tennessee — and still uses the three-letter code BNA.
Fans have also called on the General Assembly to revive a previous effort to honor Parton with a statue on the state Capitol grounds in Nashville — one she politely rebuffed at the time.
“Somewhere down the road several years from now, or perhaps after I’m gone, if you feel I still deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great state Capitol as a grateful Tennessean,” she wrote on Instagram in 2021.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.