Singer Dolly Parton urged legislators in her home state of Tennessee on Thursday not to erect a statue of her in the State Capitol.
“I want to thank the Tennessee legislature for their consideration of a bill to erect a statue of me on the Capitol grounds,” Parton said in a statement. “I am honored 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,” Parton continued. “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 to do good work to make this great state proud,” she added.
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) February 18, 2021
Tennessee state Rep. John Mark Windle (D) introduced a bill in January urging funding to fashion and install a statue of the iconic country singer.
Windle introduced the legislation in an attempt to commemorate Parton “for all that she has contributed to this state.”
According to The Associated Press, Windle said of the statue when he proposed it: “At this point in history, is there a better example, not just in America but in the world, of a leader that is (a) kind, decent, passionate human being? (She’s) a passionate person who loves everyone, and everyone loves her.”
As well as being a country music star, Parton is also a philanthropist. In addition to the Imagination Library, which works worldwide to improve child literacy, Parton made a million-dollar donation to Vanderbilt University to assist with the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Parton has also turned down another coveted honor, according to reports from earlier this month.
As The Daily Wire reported:
Dolly Parton now has been offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom by two different administrations, but she has turned them both down.
She turned down the Trump administration’s offer of the award twice for health concerns, but that didn’t stop The Hill and other media outlets from framing the story as a rebuke of former President Donald Trump. The Hill went so far as to qualify Parton’s reasons for turning down the award as “mainly due to personal reasons.”
The truth is that Parton exclusively gave personal reasons for not accepting the award from the Trump administration.
“I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” she told NBC’s “Today.”
As to why she turned down the award from the Biden administration, she said: “Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure.”
Related: Dolly Parton Has Turned Down Medal Of Freedom Awards From Trump And Biden, For Different Reasons