Dolly Parton on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
NBCU
Country music icon Dolly Parton said on Thursday that she had asked Tennessee lawmakers to withdraw her bill to erect a statue of her on the state capitol grounds in Nashville.
“Considering everything that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting myself on a pedestal is appropriate at this point,” said Parton on Twitter.
Parton, 75, added that she is open to be honored with a statue in the City of Music “somewhere in several years or maybe after I leave, if you still think I deserve it.”
“In the meantime, I will continue to try to do a good job of making this great state proud,” said its statement.
A life-size statue of the nine Grammy winner is already on display in Sevierville, Tennessee, which is Parton’s hometown.
In recent years, the statues have been at the center of volatile and divisive political debates over which Americans should be honored in the public square and whether statues of figures with racist or controversial backgrounds should be overturned.
But the bill to immortalize Parton in Nashville, proposed by Democratic state deputy John Mark Windle, received widespread bipartisan support from the Tennessee General Assembly, with a strong Republican bent.
Windle, in a recent interview with Chattanooga Times Free Press, said he was “shocked” by the response his project generated.
Tennesseans “love Dolly Parton, not just because she is a great musician,” said Windle. “She is a caring, compassionate and just decent person. She takes care of her community, she takes care of her condition. And she does it selflessly.”
Parton has a strong history of philanthropy in the state and beyond. His “Imagination Library” program, started in 1995, sends free books to children every month.
After the 2016 Tennessee forest fires destroyed several homes, Parton promised to donate $ 1,000 a month to each family who was left without a place to live for six months.
Last April, Parton donated $ 1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help in his efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including testing the Modern vaccine.