A unanimous vote

The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority board voted 6-0 on Friday, Sept. 11 to start renaming Nashville International Airport for Dolly Parton.

No final name yet

Airport leaders call this the first step and say detailed plans are coming in the next few months. The name itself will be settled with the Dollywood Foundation, which Parton started in 1988.

“While a final name has not yet been determined, we are working closely with the appropriate parties”

They changed the rules

Airport policy normally requires a person to be dead at least two years before anything is named for them. The board amended that to move now. Parton died Aug. 25 at 80 after a brief battle with cancer.

A petition got there first

A campaign to create "Dolly Parton International Airport" launched in early 2025, well before her death. It has since passed 175,000 signatures.

Republicans and Democrats agreed

Gov. Bill Lee proposed the change days after she died, Mayor Freddie O'Connell backed it, and Metro Council passed a supporting resolution unanimously on Sept. 1.

“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”

Why her name carries

Born in Sevier County, Parton sold over 100 million records across seven decades, holds the record with 25 No. 1 country hits by a woman, and sent hundreds of millions of books to kids through the Imagination Library.