Fans Push to Rename Nashville Airport for Dolly Parton

An effort to rename Nashville International Airport after Dolly Parton has exploded since her death on Tuesday. More than 136,000 people, including the singer Sheryl Crow, had signed an online petition for the change as of Thursday afternoon.

Tributes have poured out globally since Ms. Parton, the country music superstar, actress 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 Ms. Parton’s death.

“Dolly represented the best of Tennessee, and the best of what we can be as human beings,” Ms. 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.

“My phone and emails are blown up,” said State Representative Todd Warner, a Republican, who last year introduced legislation to rename the same airport for President Trump. (The effort failed.)

He said he now planned to introduce a bill in the coming weeks to rename the airport for Ms. Parton, adding, “America needs more people like Dolly Parton.”

But for now, bureaucracy could stand in the way.

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.

Since Ms. Parton’s death, the authority has received several inquiries about renaming the airport, a spokeswoman said.

Tennessee politics also 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.

Wally Dietz, Nashville’s former legal director, who serves on the local airport board, described “overwhelming sentiment” in favor of a name change — but an unclear path forward.

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 Ms. 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.

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.

Barring any changes to the naming rules, passengers could be waiting a while before seeing Dolly Parton on their boarding passes.

In the meantime, fans have also called on the General Assembly to revive a previous effort to honor Ms. 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.

Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.