Before city, state and airport officials agreed to rename Nashville International Airport in honor of the recently deceased Dolly Parton, two local advocates worked for more than a year to make it a reality.
In January 2025, comedian Lydia Popovich and Goat Song Media owner Dan Dion started a Change.org petition advocating for the renaming of Nashville's airport. Months after its creation, the petition garnered about 20,000 to 30,000 signatures. Roughly a year later, Parton's death brought the idea back to the forefront of Nashville residents' minds, and the petition surpassed 125,000 signatures and was shared across the country amid the outpouring of support in the days after the icon's death.
Popovich and Dion were among the millions grieving
Parton's death, posting and spreading the warmhearted legacy of the beloved country singer in addition to their petition.
"For me, I just want people to remember the true legacy of Dolly Parton...And that is how to be a good person, how to be humble, how to give back, how to care for your family, how to care for yourself, how to give to the world," Popovich told The Tennessean regarding what she wants people to remember about Parton.
"That's what is the most important is I want people to remember more than the glitter and the wigs and the pink and the hair...But the core of who she is, the core of her legacy, the core of what she's leaving behind is so much bigger than that."
Hardcover, collector's edition book: 160 pages of Dolly, at her brightest.
When the Metro Nashville Airport Authority Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Sept. 11 in favor of renaming the airport, the petition had more than 175,000 signatures.
While the petition continued to draw signatures, Gov. Bill Lee, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell and several other state and local officials endorsed the idea, turning the grassroots campaign into a legitimate proposal, but they did so without ever acknowledging the existence of the petition.
Without the silent partners' petition, it is unclear how the renaming of the Nashville airport would have unfolded.
Here is how Popovich and Dion's petition came to fruition and what happened along the way.
Why was the Dolly Parton Change.org petition started?
Before Dion and Popovich started their petition, there was a proposed bill in the state legislature to rename BNA as Donald Trump International Airport. However, Dion and Popovich both noted that the petition was not created in response to the legislation.
"People thought that we were coming out and it was going to be an anti-Trump movement, that we needed to stop that from happening and instead name the airport after someone else," Dion told The Tennessean. "It was Dolly to begin with," he continued.
In reality, Dion and Popovich simply got the idea from being frequent BNA travelers and staunch fans of Dolly Parton.
"Every time I would happen to land and hear her voice, I would feel like it was a little nudge of good luck. And I kept thinking to myself, this airport should be named after Dolly Parton," said Popovich.
"I really wanted [Dolly] to have something big and memorable that she could see while she was alive so that she could see what she meant to the state of Tennessee and what she meant to the world," she continued.
"I had recently gone through the airport in New Orleans where they had renamed it after Louis Armstrong. I'm like, 'that is the coolest thing in the world,'" added Dion. "We, Nashville, deserves something and there's no one else that [the airport] should be named after other than Dolly."
Did Popovich and Dion have any coordination with officials on the renaming of the airport?
Prior to Dion and Popovich's petition, there had been very little activity surrounding the renaming of the airport in honor of Parton.
Despite rallying the public behind the idea, Dion and Popovich had very minimal contact with state lawmakers and airport authority members. Furthermore, the two received an endorsement from only one significant player, Rep. Todd Warner, R-Chapel Hill.
"It meant that we were so rumbly, we were so tumbly. There was so much news and so much attention around this idea. It forced them to come to the table," said Popovich about the lack of communication.
"So, I think it was a purposeful omission. And I think it was strategic. But again, it's politics," she continued. "And for me, it's a non-issue because my politics is Dolly Parton. All I care about is Dolly Parton."
When they first created the petition, the pair reached out to several lawmakers and officials including Warner, Nashville Airport CEO Doug Kreulen and Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville. Besides Warner, who commented on the petition and then stated publicly that he would file legislation on the matter, no officials responded.
"Personally, I wasn't necessarily upset by it. I also wasn't surprised by it. In a way, to me, that kind of proved a little bit of victory," said Popovich.
"We're not expecting to be like part of, you know, you know, legislation or administration or things like that," said Popovich. "But on the other hand, it's like, you know, it would be nice to be invited to the discussion...We'd like to be there to see the fruits of our labor."
Popovich, who attended and spoke at the Sept. 11 vote, wasn't invited to speak. Rather, she saw the announcement for the meeting on the proposed rule change, went through the formal process to be able to speak and secured a speaking slot for the meeting's public comment period after receiving approval from officials.
"I wanted her to know how much she meant to us," Popovich said at the meeting. "I wanted the world to know how much Tennessee loves her."
Do Change.org petitions hold any legal weight?
Change.org petitions hold no legal force, as they are merely virtual documents meant to demonstrate public sentiment, generate media attention and encourage elected officials and organizations to enact the proposed change.
That said, Popovich, Dion and nearly every other individual who starts a Change.org petition does so as a spokesperson for the cause they are advocating for.
"The fact of the matter is, is that that petition is just letting people know there's this many people that are in favor of this. It has no, you know, actual legislative teeth to it," said Popovich in regard to their petition.
"It's not putting anything on the ballot, right? We were like, this is great, but what are our real next steps? And we were like, how do we get some actual politicians involved who can move this forward legislatively?"
How Dolly Parton airport petition became too big too ignore
Dion and Popovich might not have received an abundance of recognition from state or local officials, but their role in promoting and ultimately influencing the renaming of the airport was undoubtedly the ideal conclusion to their more than yearlong endeavor.
Beyond getting 175,000 signatures, the petition was shared by Sheryl Crow and led to a plane with a banner, paid for by Change.org, advocating for the renaming to fly over downtown Nashville. The petition got to the point where it was too big to ignore, a goal of seemingly all local advocates.
"It forced [officials] to have discussions that they weren't willing to have earlier. It forced them to realize, oh, this is an issue that if we don't support, this harassment is going to continue. And I don't say harassment in a negative way," said Popovich.
The Nashville duo certainly didn't have any power in the formal decision making, but with the help of the 175,000 who signed the petition, they were able to get the idea in front of the right people. That was all they could do, and they did it, and it was enough.
Peter Burditt covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact him at PBurditt@nashvill.gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How 175K signatures helped rename Nashville's airport after Dolly Parton
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