A mural of Dolly Parton, rendered in the yellow-skinned style of The Simpsons, now covers an exterior wall in an alley off Willamette Street near the Voodoo Doughnut dumpster in downtown Eugene. Local artist Bayne Gardner painted the tribute the day after Parton died at age 80 in late August 2026, surrounding her cartoon likeness with lyrics from the song she wrote decades earlier about the city itself.
Gardner has painted several Simpsons-themed murals in and around downtown Springfield, which have become tourist attractions, according to Eugene Magazine. As The Oregonian/OregonLive reports, Gardner said he decided to paint a tribute to Parton because she had written a song about Eugene, and he surrounded the new mural with lyrics pulled from that track.
Why Parton Wrote a Song About Eugene
The affection ran both ways, and it traced back more than five decades. Parton's song “Eugene, Oregon” was inspired by a Valentine's Day concert on February 14, 1972, at the Lane County Fairgrounds Agricultural Building, where she performed while ill alongside headliner Porter Wagoner, according to Lookout Eugene-Springfield. Before roughly 1,500 attendees, Parton received multiple standing ovations while battling her illness, moving her to tears and prompting her to write the song thanking the crowd for its kindness, the outlet notes. The lyrics Gardner painted around her mural include the lines “Eugene, Oregon, I'll remember you for the rest of my life” and “Eugene, Oregon, you were kind,” according to the seed reporting from OregonLive.
Per that same report, the mural sits in an alley off Willamette Street near the Voodoo Doughnut dumpster, on a wall whose owner allows Gardner to paint family-friendly art at the location. Gardner told the outlet he felt embarrassed that he hadn't spent more time on the piece, even as it drew a wave of attention and coverage from multiple outlets.
A Cartoon Rivalry Between Neighboring Cities
The choice to paint Parton as a Simpsons character taps into a long-running local rivalry. Eugene and Springfield each claim some ownership of The Simpsons, since the fictional hometown of the Simpson family sits, at least in spirit, right next door to Eugene. Simpsons creator Matt Groening, who is from Portland, publicly confirmed in 2012 that Springfield, Oregon was the real-life namesake behind Homer Simpson's cartoon hometown, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Springfield leaned into that connection in 2014, planning a Simpsons mural at the Emerald Art Center that was expected to be completed by the end of summer, with input from Groening and discussions with Simpsons producers, as The Guardian reported at the time. Gardner's smaller, unofficial murals have since built an informal Simpsons tourist trail across the twin cities, per Eugene Magazine. Parton herself had appeared or voiced herself on The Simpsons, adding another thread connecting the singer to the cartoon world Gardner used to memorialize her.
A Legislative Legacy Beyond the Mural
Parton's ties to Oregon extended well past music and murals. In 2026, Governor Tina Kotek signed House Bill 4022, permanently codifying Parton's Imagination Library into Oregon state statute with up to a 50 percent state matching grant, Hoodline previously reported. By August 2026, the program had enrolled more than 77,000 children under age 5 — about 36 percent of that age group statewide — and had distributed over 4 million books since its state launch.
Portland City Council was scheduled to hold a September 23 ceremony to proclaim September 25, 2026, Dolly Parton Day, according to that same Hoodline coverage. Gardner's mural adds a distinctly Lane County chapter to that broader statewide wave of tributes, one that folds together a 1972 concert memory, a cartoon rivalry between two neighboring cities, and a Simpsons-style farewell painted onto a downtown Springfield wall.
