#Dolly Parton statue proposed for Tennessee Capitol building

She’d be there for much longer than 9 to 5.

Tennessee state Rep. John Mark Windle proposed Wednesday that a statue of the pioneering country artist and Tennessee native Dolly Parton be erected on the grounds of the state Capitol.

The gesture is meant to honor Parton’s million-dollar donation to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center — a gift that helped to develop Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

According to Windle, the statue would also recognize the “9 to 5” singer “for all she has contributed to this state.”

The statue would be paid for by the Dolly Parton fund and would face the Ryman Auditorium, where Parton performed several times during her career. The public will also have a say in what the statue looks like, according to the proposal.

Parton’s statute would likely be less controversial than the Capitol’s bust of Confederate General and KKK member Nathan Bedford Forrest, which the Tennessee State Capitol Commission tried to have removed last summer. The removal of the Forrest statue was eventually thwarted by a series of lawsuits, including one filed by the group “Sons of Confederate Veterans.”

Parton has not publicly commented on the proposed statue.