Dolly Parton's death on Monday at age 80 has reignited calls across Tennessee to put her name on major public infrastructure, but Knoxville's McGhee Tyson Airport faces a legal roadblock nearly a century in the making that Nashville's airport does not share. The airport's very name is bound to a 1929 land donation for Knoxville's Tyson Park, and undoing that agreement could cost the city the park itself.
The renewed push follows a wave of attention on a Nashville petition that predates Parton's death by more than a year. As Hoodline previously reported, that Change.org petition to rename Nashville International Airport for Parton was actually started in January 2025 as a counter-proposal to House Bill 217, a measure from Tennessee Representative Todd Warner that sought to rename the facility Trump International Airport. According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, that petition had gathered more than 90,000 signatures by 4:30 p.m. the day after Parton's death.
Charlotte Weatherington acknowledged the numerous requests to rename Nashville International Airport for Parton, the News Sentinel reports, though officials there say any formal renaming effort must wait at least two years after her death under airport policy. Nashville's policies do permit a name change eventually — a flexibility Knoxville's airport authority does not appear to have.
A Century-Old Deed Stands in the Way
McGhee Tyson Airport's name traces back to Charles McGhee Tyson, a pilot and descendant of Knoxville's founder who was killed when his plane went down over the North Sea during World War I. His mother arranged for the city to take 20 acres of land for what became Tyson Park, and in exchange got Knoxville to agree to name its major airport after her son, per the same News Sentinel report.
That arrangement means McGhee Tyson Airport cannot change its name without Knoxville giving up Tyson Park near Kingston Pike, the News Sentinel notes. The airport itself moved out of Knoxville proper in 1937, relocating about 12 miles away, and today it sits within Alcoa city limits — but the naming obligation tied to the park moved with it. The facility remains one of the busiest airports in Tennessee, and it is about 45 miles from Parton's childhood home in Sevier County.
The News Sentinel spoke with Becky Huckaby, who said she had not heard of any campaign to rename Knoxville's airport, suggesting the local push has not gained the traction seen in Nashville. That stands in contrast to another recent East Tennessee tribute: East Tennessee Children's Hospital changed its name to Dolly Parton Children's Hospital in April 2026, a change Parton herself agreed to because of her belief in the hospital's mission, according to the same report.
Codes, Confusion, and Costly Precedent
Even setting aside the deed issue, practical hurdles remain. McGhee Tyson Airport carries the IATA code TYS, and the codes DLY, DOL, and DLP are already assigned to other airports by the International Air Transport Association, per the News Sentinel. The airport could still request a code change, since IATA has approved such changes on occasion — though the organization does not change airport codes often.
The News Sentinel also raises a subtler risk: with a Nashville push already underway, having two Tennessee airports with similar Dolly Parton-inspired names could cause confusion for travelers and could open the door to lawsuits. Airports in Orlando and San Francisco have previously sued or settled litigation over airport name rights, the paper notes, and the fallout from a botched rebrand elsewhere offers a cautionary price tag — the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport to President Donald J. Trump International Airport cost about $5.5 million, according to Reuters.
Nashville's own bill to become Trump International Airport carried an official fiscal estimate of $10.34 million, including $3.59 million for signage and $2.28 million for legal and trademark work, according to AirlineGeeks. The Federal Aviation Administration would not prevent a Knoxville name change outright, the News Sentinel reports, but the paper notes that Knoxville's smaller Downtown Island Airport could change its name more easily — though doing so would reach far fewer people than a change at McGhee Tyson.
State, Not City, Now Holds the Keys
Any renaming decision would also run through a very different governing structure than it would have a year ago. State officials stripped Knoxville of its power to appoint most of the people controlling spending and strategy at McGhee Tyson Airport in 2026, after the Tennessee General Assembly passed Senate Bill 2473 that May, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel. That overhaul shifted board appointment authority for the Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority toward the state.
Governor Bill Lee has already used that new power, appointing online ammunition retailer and real estate broker Jordan Mollenhour to one of the state-designated board seats in July, as Hoodline reported in its piece on the state's tightening grip on Knoxville airport policy. Any future push to rename the airport for Parton would need buy-in from board members like Mollenhour, not just local Knoxville leaders.
The airport is also mid-expansion, having served a record 3,630,410 passengers in 2025, an 8.7% jump over 2024, across 36 nonstop routes. The Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority has approved a $175.4 million, 3,500-space parking garage expansion, tracked in Hoodline's earlier report on the project staying on pace for a summer 2027 finish. For now, any tribute to Dolly Parton at Knoxville's airport remains theoretical, tangled in a land deed nearly one hundred years old.
