08/29/2026
No international commercial airport in the United States has ever been named after a woman. Dolly Parton is set to become the first.
The US has major airports named for presidents, senators, a boxer, a jazz trumpeter and an actor. The women of aviation received smaller honors: Amelia Earhart, the most famous pilot in American history, got a small airport in her Kansas hometown and a baggage area at Boston Logan.
The closest anyone came: Little Rock has been Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport since 2012, but that one is named for a couple, not a single woman. Austin named a terminal for congresswoman Barbara Jordan. A terminal, a baggage area, a couple of small airfields. Never the airport itself, for a woman alone.
Nearly a century of commercial aviation, and the door never opened. Now Tennessee's Governor and Nashville International Airport have announced their intent to name BNA in her honor, with the proposal going before the airport authority's board on September 17.
Dolly's team told the Governor they are touched by the idea and open to continuing the conversation.