Dolly Parton asks Tennessee lawmakers not to erect statue of her on Capitol grounds
Dolly #Dolly
Country music legend and Tennessee native Dolly Parton asked state legislators to remove a bill to erect a statue in her honor on Capitol grounds.
Parton, 75, said she was “honored and humbled” by the gesture but doesn’t think it’s the right timing.
“Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time,” she said in a statement on Twitter.
In January, state Rep. John Mark Windle, a Democrat, introduced a bill to create a statue in Nashville recognizing Parton for “her for all that she has contributed to this state.”
The statue was to be financed by gifts, grants and donations.
Windle told The Chattanooga Times Free Press that his bill had received a lot of support. He credited the backing to not only Parton’s music but her philanthropy.
“It shocked me the amount of the response we’ve had,” he told the outlet in an interview earlier this month, saying that Tennesseans “love Dolly Parton, not just because she’s a great musician. She’s a caring, compassionate and just a decent person. She takes care of her community, she takes care of her state. And she does it selflessly.”
In 2016, the singer’s Dollywood Foundation donated $1,000 a month to families that were impacted by the Tennessee wildfires. The payments went out for a total of six months. Earlier this year, she donated $1 million to fund the coronavirus vaccine.
Parton said in her Twitter statement that she is open to having a statue of her erected in the future.
“I hope, though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel like I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean,” she wrote. “In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to do good work to make this great state proud.”
Her tweet has been shared thousands of times, with many people on social media praising the singer for being selfless.