A Beatle, a jazz legend, the father of bossa nova & more have received this unique honor.
Dolly Parton at the Academy of Country Music Awards held at Allegiant Stadium on March 7, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher Polk/PMC
Within 36 hours of Dolly Parton’s Aug. 25 death, a Change.org petition began circulating to rename Nashville International Airport to Dolly Parton International Airport after the legendary singer and philanthropist. By Aug. 28, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee had released a press release announcing a partnership with the airport (also known as BNA) to change the name.
Lee had also talked with Parton’s team, who said they were open to continuing the conversation.
“Dolly Parton’s extraordinary life is forever woven into the fabric of our state,” said Lee, in the statement. “From her rural mountain home in East Tennessee to global stages, Dolly carried the Volunteer Spirit with her. At a place where Tennessee welcomes the world, it is fitting that Nashville International Airport would bear the name of our state’s favorite daughter and greet travelers with the enduring legacy of Dolly’s music, generosity, faith, and kindness.”
The Metro Nashville Airport Authority will meet Sept. 17 to discuss the proposal further. Currently, the MNAA requires a two-year wait after someone’s death, and the suggested person must have a tie to aviation. The one thing Parton didn’t seem to be able to do is pilot a plane, so the MNAA will have to vote to waive both the time policy and the link to aviation, which seems a no-brainer.
Should the name change happen, Parton will become one of only a handful of musicians around the globe with airports names after them — and only the second musician in the U.S. to have an airport named after them.
Below, in chronological order, are the other airports around the world named after musicians and the year of the naming. Let’s just say a lot of of these musicians had a heck of a longer wait than it looks like Parton will.
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Guiseppe Verdi Airport, Parma, Italy (1991)
The Italian airport took the name of the Italian composer, famous for such operas as La Traviata and Rigoletto, when it opened in 1991.
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Salzburg Airport W.A. Mozart (1996)
The Austrian airport kept its city in its name, but added on W.A. Mozart in 1996 to commemorate the 240th anniversary of classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth in Salzburg.
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Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport, Rio De Janiero, Brazil (1999)
The move for Nashville to switch to Parton is fast, but Rio also moved quickly, renaming its airport only five years after the father of bossa nova’s death in 1994.
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Frederic Chopin International Airport, Warsaw, Poland (2001)
Romantic era composer Chopin, who died in 1949, grew up in Warsaw, before leaving the Polish city for Paris, where he lived until his death at 39.
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Louis Armstrong International Airport, New Orleans (2001)
The only airport in the U.S. (for now) named after a musician takes its name from the legendary, Grammy-winning New Orleans-born jazz and blues trumpeter.
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John Lennon International Airport, Liverpool (2002)
The British airport changed its name to honor the slain Beatle in 2002, 22 years after his untimely death. Lennon, like the rest of The Beatles, grew up in Liverpool, England.
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Leos Janacek Airport, Ostrava, Czech Republic (2006)
The Czech city named its airport after the 20th century Czech composer, who died in 1928.
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Henryk Weiniawski Airport, Poznan, Poland (2006)
The small Polish town named its airport after Weiniawski, a famous violinist and composer, who died in 1880.
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Astor Piazzolla International Airport, Mar Del Plata, Argentina (2008)
Piazzolla, who died in 1992, was an iconic Argentine tango composer and master of the bandoneon (also known as a concertina).
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Franz Liszt International Airport, Budapest, Hungary (2011)
The famous 19th century composer was a virtuoso pianist and considered a rock star in his day for his looks and brilliant playing.
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Sergei Prokofiev International Airport, Donetsk, Ukraine (2012)
Prokofiev, the 20th-century Russian composer, is best known for writing Peter and the Wolf and the ballet Romeo and Juliet. He was born in Sontsovka in a part of Russia that is now part of Ukraine.
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Cesaria Evora International Airport, Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands (2012)
The legendary singer, who died in 2011, was a legendary singer who became famous for singing barefoot and bringing the traditional Cape Verdean musician style known as morna to the world. The airport changed its name a year after her death.
