Legend Dolly Parton died this week at age 80, leaving behind a massive legacy and legions of mourning fans (including all your favorite Downtown Alliance staffers). She might have been a Tennessee devotee, but we will always love her in New York City. Last night, the Empire State Building lit up pink in her honor, and in Lower Manhattan, and she’s been temporarily memorialized with a makeshift subway sign declaring the Fulton Street A/C stop “Dolly Parton Street.”
Parton was a powerhouse in the country music scene, with a back catalog that included indelible hits like “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene” and “9 to 5.” She was also a longstanding pop culture icon and, crucially, a noted philanthropist. Her Imagination Library program, for instance, has distributed more than 300 million books to children under 5 worldwide; Dollywood, her famed theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is credited with injecting billions of dollars and thousands of jobs into the area’s once troubled economy. She will be very, very missed. (And if you haven’t listened to WNYC’s wide-ranging podcast series, “Dolly Parton’s America,” now’s your chance.)
Catch the subway sign IRL while it’s still up, and leave your Dolly remembrances on our post over on Instagram.
