A Tennessee congressman has accepted Dolly Parton's wish to not have a statue erected in her honour.
Dolly Parton
Rep. Jeremy Faison first suggested the 'Jolene' hitmaker commemorated with a likeness at the Capitol building in Tennessee back in 2019 and last month, a fellow state representative, John Mark Windle introduced a bill to make the tribute happen, but the country legend turned down the honour in a statement issued on Thursday (18.02.21).
Although the bill is still on the table, Jeremy believes his colleagues will rightfully respect Dolly's decision and scrap the idea.
The congressman told TMZ he isn't disappointed by the '9 to 5' singer's request and admires her even more for it.
Instead, he suggested a statue could be erected in honour of Anne Dallas Dudley, a prominent women's suffrage activist in the early 20th century, who founded the Nashville Equal Suffrage League and successfully helped women obtain the right to vote.
Dolly had insisted she isn’t interested in having her own statue, because she doesn’t think it’s “appropriate” to put her “on a pedestal”.
She said in a statement: “I want to thank the Tennessee legislature for their consideration of a bill to erect a statue of me on the Capitol grounds. I am honoured and humbled by their intention but I have asked the leaders of the state legislature to remove the bill from any and all consideration.
“Given all that is going on in the world, I don’t think putting me on a pedestal is appropriate at this time. I hope, though, that somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it, then I’m certain I will stand proud in our great State Capitol as a grateful Tennessean. In the meantime, I’ll continue to try and do good work to make this great state proud.”
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