CORNERSVILLE, Tenn. — Tara Polk reached for her phone and pulled up a photograph of her standing beside country music legend Dolly Parton. Both are smiling.
It was June 24, the grand opening of Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop, a roadside destination off Interstate 65 in Cornersville. Parton had come to cut the ribbon.
Polk, the general manager, who made the photograph her profile picture earlier in the day, looked at it again as tears gathered in her eyes.
"At 40 years old, to get to meet her in person and share a moment with her, it was incredible," Polk said. "It was a moment I'll never forget. And it was a moment that I'll always cherish."
The grand opening on June 24 was Parton's final public appearance.
In blue-and-pink fringe and stilettos,
the 80-year-old drew cheers walking into the warm summer day.
"I've spent my whole life traveling down the road," she told the crowd. "I'm sure some of you are wondering why I wanted a truck stop. Well, I couldn't leave it to beavers."
Parton cut the ribbon as confetti flew.
"I think the world became a little dimmer," Polk said remembering the moment. "We need a little more of Dolly everywhere."
News of Dolly Parton passing away arrives on the road
Employees moved through the travel stop wearing sad faces. Customers in the restaurant stopped to check the news about the country icon whose messages and songs played overhead.
Outside, Gregory Sachs, Parton's business partner in the travel stop, sat at a yellow table on top of the artificial turf.
Two months earlier, he had stood beside Parton as she wielded an oversized pair of scissors.
"I remember a lot of happiness, a lot of joy," Sachs said. "She was extremely excited to be here. She was very proud of what she had created."
Now, Sachs was mourning a friend and business partner.
He said that "the sparkle and the bright light and the kindness" are what he will most.
"She just personified love and kindness," he added.
Antoinette Williams and Amy Dougherty were eating lunch when their phones began lighting up.
The friends, who live in the Knoxville and Maryville area, had set out that morning looking for something fun to do together. They decided to drive to Parton's truck stop with no idea of what the day would become.
"We started getting texts on our telephone that she had passed," Williams said.
Minutes earlier, the two had been talking about Parton and marveling that she was 80.
"We were in shock as well, and we just didn't know what to do or what to say," Williams said.
"She just emanated kindness," she said. "For everybody, every age group, every denomination, every color, every religion, everybody can come back to Dolly."
Another family had been driving down from Iowa when they heard.
"She's just someone that you would never expect to die, like ever," Jax, 10, said. "It just feels like we didn't get enough time with her."
His mother, Amber Easton, pointed to Parton's advocacy for children and literacy.
"The world definitely lost a light with her," Easton said.
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Dolly Parton’s business partner remembers her final appearance
