Will Kentucky rename a state park for Loretta Lynn? What the latest proposal includes

Shortly after her death in late 2022, fans of country music legend Loretta Lynn began circulating a petition to get a state park renamed in the Kentucky native’s honor.

Now, in 2024, that campaign may be making some inroads as the Kentucky Department of Parks officially explores options for honoring the star.

The Change.org petition has drawn more than 25,000 signatures, and during 2023 legislative session, the idea won support in the form of Senate Resolution 110.

That resolution, sponsored by state Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, “urges the Department of the Parks to create a committee of diverse stakeholders to identify the best methods of honoring Loretta Lynn in our park system.”

The resolution also requests the parks department report to the Legislative Research Commission possible solutions and “a recommendation for future legislative action” by Jan. 1, 2024.

Now, the department seems to be following up on that request.

In a recent memo to the director of the LRC, Kentucky Parks Commissioner Russ Meyer detailed some of the options the department is proposing. The agency shared the letter in response to a Herald-Leader query.

A portion of that letter reads, “Through discussions with diverse interests and assessment of the system needs, the Department recommends the following potential solutions:

“1) The construction of a statue of Loretta Lynn to be placed in the grassy area of the roundabout at the entrance to Paintsville Lake State Park. While there is no funding currently available for this honor, private funds could be leveraged through a partnership with the Kentucky Parks Foundation and a fundraising campaign.

“2) In the future after current statewide park needs have been addressed, perform a feasibility study on the construction of a new lodge at Paintsville Lake State Park named for Loretta Lynn. The evaluation will include reviewing area occupancy rates, park visitation rates, planning and construction costs, existing park funding sources, and the overall system wide needs of the Department,” Meyer’s letter states.

A spokesperson for the LRC referred comment about project updates to the state parks department.

It remains unclear whether specifically renaming Paintsville Lake State Park in Lynn’s honor is currently under consideration, though that is the stated goal of the fan petition.

Asked for more specifics about what goes into the decision-making process, including whether renaming the park was on the table, a Kentucky Parks Department spokesperson told the Herald-Leader, “In regard to Senate Resolution 110, the recommendation information has been provided to the General Assembly, and they will make the next step.”

Addressed to Gov. Andy Beshear and the state’s legislature and congressional delegation, the petition pushes for Paintsville Lake State Park, located in Lynn’s native Johnson County, to be renamed after the “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

“Loretta Lynn is not only Kentucky’s daughter; she is a national treasure,” the petition by organizer Carla Engle reads. “Loretta Lynn touched the nation’s heart with her down-home country charm, life story of surviving poverty and overcoming insurmountable obstacles to reach the pinnacle of success. Loretta Lynn impacted our culture and altered the course of country music forever.”

Kentucky’s own ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’

Born in Johnson County in 1932, Lynn married young. At age 20, she’d had four children with her husband, a U.S. Army veteran she met at a community pie social when she was 15. Though she would later pick up the guitar and begin singing in her spare time, talents that won her fame and success, Lynn considered herself a wife and mother above all.

“If I’m anything in this world, I’m a wife and mother,” she said in 1990. “I do enjoy my performing and musical career, but it’s my family that means most.”

Lynn’s background and family values informed her voice as an artist, spurring her signature song “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which she recorded in 1970.

But she was also notable for her distinctly feminine point of view. With songs like “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” and birth control anthem “The Pill,” Lynn blazed the trail for women in the country music industry.

Even upon her death, she remained the most-awarded woman in country music.

Some of her many firsts include becoming the first woman in country music history to earn a certified gold album, the first woman named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association and the first female country music artist to be honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

Allen Branscum, a Kentucky supporter of the petition, admires Lynn for her humility and for not forgetting her roots.

“She never forgot her hometown. After the coal mine disaster of 1970 where 38 miners were killed close to her area, she worked tirelessly for days promoting a benefit show she organized at Freedom Hall to benefit the families of the miners killed,” Branscum told the Herald-Leader in an email. “She’s very deserving of a lasting tribute in her home town of Paintsville.”

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