Dolly Parton Has Died: Here’s What Upstate New York Remembers

Dolly Parton has died at 80, and her nephew Bryan Seaver shared the news on her behalf Tuesday. Tributes are already pouring in from Nashville to the Smoky Mountains, and here in Upstate New York, the loss feels personal in its own way.

Dolly never lived in Upstate New York and never called this place home, but she left fingerprints on this region worth pulling together today. A snowbound concert that turned into local legend. A bridge that locals swear looks just like her. A book program that is still mailing stories to kids. Here is how the Queen of Country wound her way into our part of the map.

Utica, New York, and the Blizzard Concert Of 1993

Thirty-three years ago this past March, Dolly rolled into Utica for a show at the Stanley Theatre that got caught in one of the worst storms the region has ever seen. The Blizzard of '93, sometimes called the Storm of the Century, forced towns across Central New York to declare states of emergency, and Dolly's concert had to be pushed back a full day.

She rode out the storm at the Radisson downtown and finally took the stage on March 14. What stuck with her, though, wasn't the concert delay. It was watching Utica refuse to let a historic blizzard cancel its St. Patrick's Day parade. Marchers bundled up and pushed through snow drifts to keep the tradition alive, and Dolly was so struck by it that she brought the story with her to New York City, retelling it on The Late Show with David Letterman. Central New York's snow stubbornness has always been a point of local pride, and a country music legend took note.

The "Dolly Parton" Bridge

Head to the Capital Region, and you'll find a nickname that has stuck around for years. The Thaddeus Kosciuszko Bridge carries I-87, the Northway, over the Mohawk River and the Erie Canal near Cohoes, connecting Albany and Saratoga counties with its twin steel truss spans. Locals have called it the Twins and the Twin Bridges for as long as most people can remember, but plenty of drivers know it best as the Dolly Parton Bridge, a wink at its curved, larger-than-life shape.

It is the kind of local joke that only works because everybody already loves her. You don't nickname a bridge after someone unless her name already means something warm to the people driving over it every day.

New York Kids Thrive Through Dolly's Imagination Library

Dolly's Imagination Library has been mailing free books to children since 1995, when she started it for kids in her home county in East Tennessee. That mission has since spread into Upstate New York, with thousands of local kids enrolled and tens of thousands of books already delivered.

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Why Upstate New York Feels This Loss Today

A blizzard story that became local legend. A bridge nickname that made a commute a little more fun. A library program still filling mailboxes with books this month. None of it required Dolly to ever put down roots here. She had a way of showing up in the smaller corners of a life.