Lawmaker Proposes Naming Mobile’s New Bridge for Dolly Parton
A Cullman County lawmaker wants Alabama’s biggest bridge project to carry the name of its most beloved entertainer. State Rep. Cindy Myrex, R-Cullman, is calling for the new Mobile River crossing to be named the “Dolly Parton Memorial Bridge,” honoring the country icon who died Tuesday at age 80 after a brief battle with cancer.
“Dolly Parton represents so much of what people love about the South: faith, family, hard work, generosity, humility, and never forgetting where you came from,” Myrex said. “Her impact goes far beyond music.” Myrex, who represents a North Alabama district far from the Gulf Coast, said her interest in the Mobile bridge project reflects its statewide importance rather than regional geography.
The Imagination Library Connection
Myrex pointed to Parton’s decades of philanthropy — above all the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which mails free books monthly to children from birth to age five. Alabama began expanding the program statewide in 2023, and it now operates in all 67 counties. Roughly 105,000 Alabama children currently receive books, and more than 5.4 million books have been delivered in the state since 2004, according to the program.
The Imagination Library, which Parton founded in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, has become one of the largest childhood literacy efforts in the country, eventually expanding across the United States and into several other countries. The Alabama program is administered through a partnership between state agencies, local affiliates and the Dollywood Foundation, with county-level coordinators helping families sign up children for the monthly book mailings.
Parton’s charitable legacy also spans disaster relief, health care and education — work that ran alongside one of the most successful careers in country music history. Her donations have helped fund medical research, support victims of Tennessee wildfires and back numerous community causes, and her literacy work has been particularly highlighted by Alabama leaders since the statewide expansion of the Imagination Library.
A Crowded Naming Debate
The proposal adds Parton to a rapidly growing list of suggested namesakes for the new Interstate 10 crossing connecting Mobile and Baldwin counties. U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, has pitched naming the span for Jimmy Buffett, the Mobile-born singer-songwriter who died in 2023, while other fans have floated Mobile natives from Hank Aaron to Nick Saban.
The range of suggestions reflects how the bridge has captured statewide attention. Hank Aaron, the Mobile-born Baseball Hall of Famer, is a frequent suggestion in local discussions, while Alabama’s seven-time national championship football coach Nick Saban has drawn support from fans across the state. Other suggestions have included civil rights figures, military heroes and historical figures connected to the Port of Mobile.
Myrex said her intent is to begin a conversation rather than settle the debate. “The new Mobile bridge will become an Alabama landmark and a gateway traveled by millions of people,” she said. “I can think of few people who better represent the Southern values of generosity, perseverance, and hospitality than Dolly Parton.” She added that her proposal is intended to spark dialogue in the Legislature and among the public rather than impose a single outcome.
About the Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Project
The Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project — a roughly $2.1 billion effort to add a new crossing and rebuild the Bankhead Tunnel approach — remains in development, with tolling and naming questions still to be worked out as construction planning advances. Once complete, the new bridge will carry Interstate 10 traffic across the Mobile River and upper Mobile Bay, easing one of the most notorious bottlenecks on the Gulf Coast’s primary east-west highway.
The project includes a new cable-stayed or suspension-style main span, additional lanes across the bay and reconstruction of the existing infrastructure connecting downtown Mobile with the Eastern Shore in Baldwin County. It has been a top transportation priority for the Alabama Department of Transportation for years, with state and federal funding combined with anticipated private toll proceeds to finance construction.
Federal highway officials have reviewed the project’s environmental and engineering plans, and the Alabama Legislature has been asked to consider authorizing various components of the financing package. Tolls are expected to play a central role in paying for the bridge, with rates and concession details still under negotiation as the project moves toward construction.
How Alabama Names Its Bridges
Alabama’s major bridges are typically named through state legislation or by action of the Alabama Department of Transportation in consultation with local officials and the public. Naming decisions often involve resolutions from county commissions and municipalities on both sides of the crossing, with the Legislature weighing in for the largest projects.
Past bridge namings have honored a wide range of figures, including military veterans, governors, civil rights leaders and local heroes. The process typically combines community input with formal action in the Legislature, particularly when a bridge carries a state or federal highway designation. Naming a bridge for Dolly Parton, who was not an Alabama native, would represent a notable departure from the typical pattern, but supporters argue that her connection to the state’s Imagination Library program makes her a fitting choice.
What’s Next for the Naming Decision
Legislative leaders in both chambers will need to weigh any naming proposal that comes forward for the Mobile bridge. With multiple suggestions already circulating, the issue is likely to draw attention from lawmakers across the state, including representatives from the Mobile region, Baldwin County and North Alabama districts such as Cullman County.
Governor Kay Ivey and members of Alabama’s congressional delegation have also weighed in on related infrastructure questions, and the naming debate is expected to surface in committee hearings and floor debate as the bridge project advances. The Legislature is expected to consider several bills related to the Mobile River Bridge in upcoming sessions, including financing measures and any naming proposals that emerge from the public discussion.
Parton’s Legacy Beyond Music
While Dolly Parton is best known as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, her philanthropy has long complemented her artistic career. The Imagination Library remains her signature charitable initiative, having delivered hundreds of millions of books to children worldwide since its founding. Parton has also funded medical research, contributed to disaster relief efforts in the Smoky Mountains region and supported numerous causes tied to literacy, education and rural health.
Her business ventures — including Dollywood, the DreamMore Resort and the associated entertainment complex in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee — have helped anchor the economy of the Smoky Mountains tourism region, providing thousands of jobs and serving as a model for how creative entrepreneurship can support rural communities. Those efforts have earned recognition from business groups, tourism associations and government leaders, including awards from Tennessee governors and U.S. presidents of both parties.
Alabama’s Tribute to Parton
Across Alabama, leaders and residents have been paying tribute to Parton since news of her death. Governor Kay Ivey ordered flags at the State Capitol and state buildings flown at half-staff, and the state Legislature has begun exploring options for honoring Parton, including the specialty license plate concept that has circulated in the days since her passing.
State education officials and literacy advocates have pointed to the Imagination Library’s Alabama expansion as a tangible legacy that will continue to shape early childhood literacy for years to come. Roughly 105,000 Alabama children currently receive free books each month through the program, and the cumulative count of more than 5.4 million books delivered statewide underscores how deeply the program has been woven into family life across Alabama’s 67 counties.
Why Cullman County Is Joining the Naming Conversation
Although the Mobile River Bridge sits far from Cullman County in North Alabama, Rep. Myrex said her interest in the bridge’s name reflects its statewide impact. Once complete, the bridge will carry I-10 traffic across the Mobile River and upper Mobile Bay, but the highway also serves as a critical freight and travel artery for communities across the state, including those in Cullman County and other inland regions.
Myrex also pointed to her constituents’ familiarity with the Imagination Library, which now operates in Cullman County along with every other county in Alabama. Many of her constituents have children or grandchildren who receive books through the program, and she said that direct experience with Parton’s work shaped her decision to propose naming the bridge after her.
Looking Ahead
State lawmakers and transportation officials will continue gathering input on the Mobile River Bridge project as construction planning advances. The naming discussion is one part of a much larger project that includes tolling, financing, environmental review and final design. Local residents on both sides of Mobile Bay will continue to follow the debate closely, with public meetings and hearings expected to give communities a chance to weigh in on both the project’s engineering and its identity.
Interstate 10’s Role Along the Gulf Coast
Interstate 10 stretches roughly 2,460 miles from Santa Monica, California, to Jacksonville, Florida, making it one of the longest interstate highways in the country and the primary east-west artery for the entire Gulf Coast. The existing Mobile River crossing — the George Wallace Tunnel and the aging bridges that carry traffic through downtown Mobile — has long been identified by transportation planners as one of the most severe chokepoints on the corridor, with daily traffic volumes far exceeding what the infrastructure was originally designed to handle when it opened decades ago. That bottleneck effect ripples well beyond Mobile, slowing freight movement between Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida during peak periods and prompting the kind of major capital investment now underway.
Because I-10 carries such a high volume of interstate commerce, decisions about the new bridge — including its name — tend to draw interest from well beyond the immediate Mobile Bay region, which helps explain why a lawmaker representing a district hundreds of miles to the north has taken an interest in the naming debate.
Precedent for Naming Bridges After Entertainers
Naming major infrastructure after musicians and entertainers is not unique to Alabama. Other states have named highways, bridges and airports for beloved artists with strong ties to the region, from Nashville International Airport’s country music branding to various Southern highways carrying the names of gospel, blues and country performers who shaped the region’s cultural identity. Supporters of naming the Mobile span for Parton have pointed to those precedents as evidence that a bridge honoring a musician’s legacy — rather than a military figure or public official — is well within the tradition of American infrastructure naming, even when the honoree was not born in the state doing the honoring.
