The Empire State Building went pink for Dolly Parton on Tuesday night.
The lights came up at 9:25 and held for a full hour, until 10:25, hours after she died at 80 at her home in Nashville. Anyone in Midtown who looked up got a pink tower and a reason to stop walking.
The Building Called It a ‘Pink Sparkle’
That was its own phrase, posted before the lights went up. It called Parton “a global cultural icon whose seven-decade career reached generations of fans,” and pointed to the Imagination Library, which has put hundreds of millions of books into children’s hands.
It never explained why the lights came up at 9:25 rather than 9. Say the time out loud and it lands close to 9 to 5.
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What New York Said
Mayor Zohran Mamdani called her “an irreplaceable champion of the working class.” City Council Speaker Julie Menin pointed to the Imagination Library and to the million dollars Parton put toward COVID-19 vaccine research. Gov. Kathy Hochul called her a once-in-a-generation talent. Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote that “all of America is mourning this monumental loss.”
The Song That Hour Belongs To
“9 to 5” came out in November 1980 as the lead single from her album 9 to 5 and Other Odd Jobs, written for the film of the same name. It went to No. 1 on the Hot 100 that February and held two weeks, the first and only time Parton topped the all-genre chart on her own. It topped the country and adult contemporary charts in the same run, won two Grammys and took an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song…