{"id":381280,"date":"2026-08-26T03:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381280\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:18:07","slug":"tampa-bay-fans-reflect-on-dolly-partons-life-and-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381280\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay fans reflect on Dolly Parton\u2019s life and legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Bay fans are remembering Dolly Parton after the country music icon <a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/entertainment\/2026\/08\/25\/dolly-parton-dead\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">died at the age of 80<\/a>, including through a new mural at\u00a01721 North Franklin Street in Tampa and a radio tribute on WMNF.<\/p>\n<p>Artist Cam Parker said he finished the mural about two weeks ago. It depicts Parton sitting on a star in space with the words, &#8220;Dolly&#8217;s Outta This World&#8221;. In a post to Instagram, Parker said he wanted Parton to know, while she was still alive, how deeply she had affected people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just really wanted, like, the nails, the shoes \u2014 those classic Dolly things. To me, that means Dolly,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n<p>Parker told Spectrum News he has loved Parton since childhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForever. The first time that I saw her was, like, on \u2018Oprah\u2019 or \u2018Donahue\u2019 or something with my grandmother, and I was, like, eight or nine,\u201d Parker said. \u201cI was like, \u2018What is this? What am I watching right now?\u2019 And it was the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parker said he tried to capture Parton\u2019s style in the mural, including glitter details in the star, fringe and bodice. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Db4d3kakal8\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">time-lapse video he posted to Instagram<\/a> shows the mural being created.<\/p>\n<p>During the nine days he worked on the piece, Parker said people regularly stopped to talk about Parton and her music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFamilies, kids, older people, dogs \u2014 everybody was coming by and just really engaging with it,\u201d Parker said. \u201cAll the nice construction guys that are working on the building next to us, while I was blasting my music out here (asked) \u2018Who is that? What Dolly song is that? I love this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At WMNF, the hosts of \u201cTraffic Jam Tuesdays\u201d dedicated part of their show to Parton. Hosts Lindalu Reisinger and Laurie Lu Berlin, known to listeners as \u201cthe Lulus,\u201d played music and shared memories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy parents owned a bar, so I grew up in a bar, and Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton were always on the TV, and you could always see the rhinestone,\u201d Reisinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Reisinger said Parton\u2019s philanthropy also made her stand out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had Dollywood, which was a great economical asset to her area, plus all the books, the literacy, that she gave for these children,\u201d Reisinger said.<\/p>\n<p>Parker said he&#8217;s saddened by Parton&#8217;s death but that her life continues to offer inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI truly don\u2019t feel like she\u2019s that girl that had a life of regrets,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n<p>Parton\u2019s family announced her death on social media and asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to <a href=\"https:\/\/imaginationlibrary.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dolly Parton\u2019s Imagination Library<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Bay fans are remembering Dolly Parton after the country music icon died at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1595,8273,19704,2813,104,276,115,2718,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-381280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-app-latest-arts-entertainment-stories","tag-app-latest-arts-stories","tag-arts","tag-entertainment","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-news","tag-sarah-blazonis","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}