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<\/p>\n\u201cYou don’t know what tomorrow brings…so be kind to people, help people, give something back to your community,\u201d Juan Velasquez said.<\/p>\n
FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 Dolly Parton’s legacy is already bringing people together in Fort Worth, where a larger-than-life mural draws people for selfies, memories, and a tribute to the country music icon.<\/p>\n
Parton died August 25 in Nashville at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer.<\/p>\n
After seeing how her death saddened his daughter, artist Juan Velasquez wanted to honor Dolly\u2019s legacy, so he reached out to the owners of Stagecoach about painting the tribute on their building. They welcomed the idea, calling it an honor to have Dolly represented there.<\/p>\n
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Yvette Gonzalez and her mother had to see the mural in person, especially since Yvette already had a T-shirt with the same image. She has admired Dolly over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just always enjoyed watching, like, interviews that she did. She was just very funny, sweet, and kind,\u201d Yvette said.<\/p>\n
For Miriam Astorga, the mural represents something bigger. She has purchased Dolly’s books for her grandchildren to help encourage them to read more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like community, because she\u2019s one person that, as my daughter said, she\u2019s impacted lives,” said Miriam Astorga.<\/p>\n
For two days, photographer Roman Pena captured Velasquez painting Dolly, with the artist wanting the mural to reflect the music icon\u2019s life and message.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don’t know what tomorrow brings, and if tomorrow’s a promise or not, so be kind to people, help people, give something back to your community,\u201d Velasquez said.<\/p>\n
Pena watched the mural come to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just really impressive to see the process happen and just watch it come to life,” Roman Pena said.<\/p>\n
Pena wants to identify several locations in the Stagecoach parking lot that would be best for selfies, mark those spots with footprints, and hope it will help with crowd control for people there at the same time.<\/p>\n
The Stagecoach Ballroom is a Fort Worth institution dating back to 1961, when Ray Chaney opened the Stagecoach Inn in the old Stagecoach Hotel near the Stockyards. After two moves and a 1967 fire, it settled at its current East Belknap Street location, where it became a legendary country and Western music venue. Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, Jim Reeves, and other stars performed there, and the Texas Historical Commission recognized its legacy with an official historical marker in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot. I was kind of raised with Dolly Parton,\u201d Stagecoach co-owner Jean Tchaikowski-Desai said.<\/p>\n
Now, the mural is drawing people who stop for selfies and to take in the tribute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s beautiful. You\u2019re very classy,\u201d Matthew David said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think it fits the area really well, the artistic style,\u201d Amber Sky Michaelson said.<\/p>\n
And for Velasquez, seeing people connect with the mural means everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think about the impact that it has on the community,” said Juan Velasquez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou don’t know what tomorrow brings…so be kind to people, help people, give something back to your community,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-433715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}