{"id":602204,"date":"2026-09-16T14:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602204\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T14:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:08:10","slug":"dolly-partons-latest-tributes-are-quite-literally-a-maze-ing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/602204\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton\u2019s Latest Tributes Are Quite Literally A-Maze-Ing"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROOKFIELD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Dolly Parton<\/a> \u2019s megawatt smile and big wavy locks are gracing fields across the U.S. and Canada this fall.<\/p>\n

Twenty farms have carved out large corn mazes to honor the late country music icon, actor and philanthropist and raise money for her Imagination Library, which provides free books to children.<\/p>\n

The \u201cJolene\u201d crooner\u2019s death due to cancer on Aug. 25 in Nashville at age 80 brought an outpouring of tributes. They ranged from a drive to rename the country music capital\u2019s airport<\/a> in Parton\u2019s honor to a surge in online streams<\/a> of \u201c9 to 5,\u201d \u201cIslands in the Stream\u201d and her many other hit songs.<\/p>\n

\"AA portrait of Dolly Parton fills a 5-acre corn maze at Twins BBQ Co. in Brookfield, Conn.<\/p>\n

Now she is being immortalized in corn, with the mazes located in about a dozen states and two provinces, from Alabama to California and Ohio to Texas.<\/p>\n

Most also feature a Parton-themed trivia game, photo ops and other offerings.<\/p>\n

Mazes were planned months before her death<\/p>\n

Brett Herbst, founder of The Maize Inc., the Utah-based consulting company that designed the mazes, called Parton a \u201ctrue American treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDolly\u2019s impact on the world and her love for farming is immeasurable, and our corn maze tributes now take on new meaning and significance,\u201d Herbst said.<\/p>\n

The company said the mazes were in the works months before Parton died and are part of its annual campaign honoring country music\u2019s brightest stars. Previous honorees included Reba McEntire in 2023, Luke Bryan in 2024 and Lainey Wilson in 2025.<\/p>\n

Parton, who famously grew up poor in rural Tennessee, thanked organizers for supporting her charity before to her death. In a statement provided by The Maize Inc., she encouraged people to \u201cget lost in this year\u2019s country music corn maze for a little fun, laughter and a real good reason to get lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornfield tributes now take on greater meaning<\/p>\n

One of the mazes is in an expansive cornfield next to Twins BBQ in Brookfield, Connecticut, about 55 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of New York. The likeness of Parton beams skyward, ringed by the words \u201cDolly\u201d and \u201cAn American Treasure\u201d and a series of stars.<\/p>\n

Danielle Gallop, who co-owns the business with her husband, admits to not knowing much about Parton before attending last year\u2019s corn maze convention at Dollywood, the Tennessee theme park Parton co-owned. But she came away impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us all about her integrity and how she ran all of her businesses and how smart and generous and kind and just really ethical and humble\u201d Parton was, Gallop said, \u201cwhich is all the things that we aspire to be as business owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parton\u2019s passing \u201cmade it exponentially more meaningful\u201d to be honoring her this year, Gallop added. \u201cShe was such an icon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The labyrinths can be tricky<\/p>\n

Stephanie Chen and her young son, William, were among those winding through the Parton maze Sunday.<\/p>\n

They said the easiest part was navigating the part where the \u201cDolly\u201d is written out in capital letters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause there\u2019s only one way through,\u201d Chen joked.<\/p>\n

Gallop says the trickiest part is Parton\u2019s hair. \u201cShe has a lot of it, and it comes to little tips,\u201d the owner said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where the next little opening is going to be. I got lost several times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most memorable part of the experience has been seeing visitors dressing up for the occasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had people in cowboy boots and cowboy hats and Dolly Parton shirts,\u201d Gallop said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really great to see all the love pouring out for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcelo reported from New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKFIELD, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Dolly Parton \u2019s megawatt smile and big wavy locks are gracing fields across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,42007,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-602204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dolly-parton","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}