Nashville Airport Renaming for Dolly Parton Wins Backing of Rival Boards

Nashville's two competing airport authorities have found common ground on at least one question: renaming the city's airport after Dolly Parton.

At a meeting on Friday, the state-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority unanimously approved a motion directing the airport's chief executive to start the renaming process. Board members praised Parton during the discussion.

Airport officials said the change could take a year or more. It would also involve talks with Parton's estate, including over how merchandise profits might be shared.

The city-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, along with Nashville's Democratic Mayor Freddie O'Connell, also supports the idea, according to O'Connell spokesman Alex Apple. He said the Federal Aviation Administration would receive favourable votes from both boards.

The two boards exist under a divided regulatory system created in 2023 amid a partisan dispute between Tennessee's Republican-led state government and the Democratic-run city. Control of the airport has been contested since, with competing boards taking charge only to be removed as court rulings shifted.

The renaming push gained momentum after Parton's death two weeks ago. A petition started in 2025 by superfan Lydia Popovich has drawn more than 175,000 signatures. Popovich said Parton had previously declined such honours, including a 2021 proposal by Tennessee lawmakers to place a statue of her at the Capitol. Parton asked for that bill to be withdrawn and said she hoped it might happen "somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I'm gone if you still feel I deserve it."

At Friday's meeting, Stuart McWhorter, a member of the state-controlled board and a deputy to Republican Governor Bill Lee, briefly raised the long-running dispute. He suggested that, in Parton's spirit, the sides could move past the litigation and work together again.

Popovich attended the meeting and spoke in favour of the proposal. She was in tears after the unanimous vote.

"It's been a really beautiful experience, especially as you're grieving someone that was such a great loss," she said. "She's the best of Tennessee. She's the best of the humans on the planet."