Dollywood announces plans to honor Dolly Parton's legacy

We're going to get on to the next story. I know that the Dollywood Presser has started. So a presser at Dollywood is being held right now. Company President Eugene Naughton is expected to detail plans about how Dolly's legacy will be honored at our parks and resort properties. So let's listen in to this together. That is going to continue to frame the experience in the area. But that's not all. You know, inside of precious memories, there are six beautiful videos narrated by Dolly. And it gives you a great chance to hear about how she thought of her family. But we're going to be working with the family at the right time to add a seventh video because we want the family to be able to share their moments with Dolly for us. And also inside of the songteller experience, we're going to be adding a new grand finale to the I Will Always Love You Room. Now, you know children were the most important thing to Dolly. You can see that in the Imagination Library and you could also see that with the new partnership with the Children's Hospital in downtown Knoxville. And it makes complete sense for us to think about a new character being added to the park in 2027. And it's going to be located up in the Wildwood Grove area because that area of the park Dolly was so proud of. And we're calling this new character the Dream Maker. It'll be a great chance for this character to interact with kids of all ages and to really learn some of the foundational things that Dolly talked about her whole life. She shared a great passion for dreaming big and telling stories. The centerpiece of the work that we're doing is at the chapel. I'm sure you all know how important that chapel was to Dolly. And Robert F. Thomas was the doctor who delivered Dolly on that snowy day, January the 19th, 1946. His work for the rural health care was one of Dolly's first philanthropic causes that she took on. The waterfall is going to have a special reflection area with a guitar that's going to be sculpted. And I hope this will turn out to be the place on property that will give a chance for people to reflect on the impact that Dolly's had on you personally in the middle of all of our fun. That makes sense. So I want you all to take a look at the project. It's really going to be a wonderful area in the park. And you saw in the rendering of the guitar, it almost looked like there were pieces of stained glass that were added to that and is proving to show the inspiration that we'll be putting into the church. We're going to be featuring the seasons of our life that we all go through and celebrating references to Eskliski's. These should provide a beautiful glow inside of the chapel. And we're so looking forward to having this open in early March of 2027. Now, I have time for a few questions. I think Ellen has the mic if there are any that you want to ask. Sorry about that. Peyton Furtado, WYFF News. A lot of people have worried that Dolly would change after Dolly Parton's passing. Can you tell them what they can expect now that the Dream Maker-in-Chief is no longer with us? You know, our Dream Maker-in-Chief really taught us well. And believe me you, she gave us the gift of time to be able to prepare what was going to eventually be happening here. And the foundations of being a great place for families to come, that will never go away. Her love of music and her love specifically of live music, the chance to bring those stories to life on the stages here, will always be a really big part of who we are as a complex. And we talked all the time about our future. She really didn't much get into daily operations. That wasn't her thing. But she really lit up when we talked about the future. So we have plans all the way through 2036 that she laid emphasis on, you know, for us as a leadership team. And I'm really confident in that. When I first joined the company, you heard us talk about a half a billion dollar investment strategy that we're going to be carrying forward. And in that, we talked about a total of five resorts to be added on our property. Well, you'll love to know that resort three, four, and five, and the outdoor resort, all planned on stories that Dolly already has approved. Because it's really important for her and for us in looking out to the future. She was really special with that for us. So I'm confident we're not only going to be the same, but if she were looking right down here on me with lightning bolts, she'd be kicking my rear if I didn't say we're going to get better every day. Hi, I'm John Gullion with the Citizen Tribune. Speaking of the way she had planned ahead, is the waterfall something that had been in the works and plans prior to her passing? Is that something that she was aware of and would have had approval of? Yep, as I talked, she gave me the inspiration of time. And I always communicated with her about what her wishes were. And the favorite thing that I have about Dolly and her leadership style is that she would never tell me what to do. But she always inspired me to do the right thing. And so the waterfall is that for us. Hi, it's Maria with Fox 5. Two questions regarding the footsteps. Are you working with the City of Sevierville? I know that's where she's from. Or Pigeon Forge, second question. For visitors that are coming to Dollywood, when can they start seeing those projects and estimated date of ending? So a lot of the projects that we mentioned before are planned and underway. And many of them would be ready when we open in March of 2027. So we're hard at work to complete some of those things. The City of Sevierville will start installing in a couple of days the footsteps path. And I believe it's a total of 11 stories to be told around the city. Hi, Christy with Smoky Mountain Food and Fun. We've had some questions. How long will the memorial walls remain out front for folks to come bring their tributes? And will those also be going to random acts of flowers? So I really don't know how long it's going to last because I don't have all the answers and I don't think anyone on our team really knows. We'll pay attention. I think we'll know when to close the memorial walls, but I'm not sure. We want to give plenty of time to let people do that in a real special way. And one other thing that I forgot to mention in my haste of talking about the Dream Maker up in Wildwood Grove. We're also adding a tribute kiosk which will give everyone a chance up in Wildwood Grove to digitally document what they want to be able to share about their Dolly stories. We all have those Dolly stories and we're going to give an option for those stories to be kept personal and private. You'll have a box to be able to check on the screen to keep them private, but you'll also have an opportunity to check a box that we'll share publicly. And we intend to use those in a unique way within our storyline at the park because it'll be a great chance to to see Dolly's impact for the long term. Well I started this conversation with the idea that it's time to turn the page and bring a smile back onto people's faces and I know no better way to do that through music. And I'm going to invite Heidi and her cast of King and Friends out here to help us celebrate. Now I expect everyone should be up and singing this too with them. Thank you Heidi. Hi everybody. Well we all know working nine to five definitely described my Aunt Dolly, so let's carry on that tradition. Heidi Parton and the cast of Heidi Parton King and Friends. For our media folks that are in the audience, please wait with your media guides and then we will move you outside to do interviews. Check with your media guides and then we'll get some things scheduled for that. What a beautiful tribute to Dolly Parton. So let's go back to the details here of what just happened. If you just joined us here on Fox Local. So company president of Dollywood, Eugene Naughton, did detailed plans on how Dollywood will remember the late icon Dolly Parton. And so they plan to add a waterfall with a guitar and a special reflection area to honor her. And they said the park is prepared to continue to keep going. They say that Dolly was a part of plans making plans through 2036. So that's something to keep in mind here. And they said they're going to start working on this waterfall, this tribute here in the next couple of days. So some exciting news coming from Dollywood's president. And they're also going to keep the memorial wall up indefinitely for those who want to continue to pay tribute to her. We know that the beloved music icon died last week on August 25th, Tuesday, August 25th. That is at the age of 80 after a brief battle with cancer and was laid to rest during a private memorial service in Nashville. Parton's estate did also announce two Dollyfest concerts happening in 2027, one being held in Nashville and the other in London.