Dolly Parton’s star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame is being replaced after it was vandalized.
Photos taken Wednesday showed repair crews at work on the Los Angeles landmark, days after fans of the country music legend were stunned to discover the tribute had been defaced following the music icon’s death at 80.
Ana Martinez, a spokesperson for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, told Our News Outlet on Tuesday that a fan alerted officials after noticing the star had been damaged with numerous scratches.
Martinez said the Walk of Fame star had already been slated for repairs last week because of existing cracks. Crews have since cleared away the flowers left by visitors and are now carrying out the restoration work.
The refurbishment is being handled by the Hollywood Historic Trust, the organization responsible for maintaining and repairing Hollywood Walk of Fame stars. Parton’s star is expected to be polished, restored and ready for fans to visit again by Friday, Martinez added.
Video of the repair process was first posted by Los Angeles based radio station KNX, which showed crews working to replace the landmark after the country queen’s name was reportedly scratched off.
Dolly Parton’s star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame is being replaced after it was vandalized. She is pictured in London in June 2023
New images showed crews repairing the landmark Wednesday after Parton fans were shocked to see it defaced just days after the music icon’s death at 80
Fans of the Jolene singer reacted with sadness and anger after learning of the damage, with one commenter writing: ‘This hurts my heart so much [heartbreak emoji]’
‘Further proof no matter who you are or what you do- someone will hate you,’ another wrote while a different commentator said: ‘WTF who would do that’
Others knew about the repairs as one wrote: ‘The star was broken from normal wear and tear. It had cracks on it and needed to be replaced.’
Parton had received the honor over four decades ago in 1984 and in the days since her death, it has served as a place for her fans in Southern California to pay their respects.
Parton passed away last week as it emerged at the time that she had been secretly battling cancer, although the specific strain was left undisclosed.
In his Instagram video announcing her death, her nephew Brian Seaver relayed Parton’s wish ‘to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton because after a life of wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.’
He hailed his aunt for having ‘lived in the light’ and said she was now ‘in the arms of Jesus’ and the company of her late husband Carl Dean, as well as her parents and ‘countless others who have watched her and longed to meet her in the heavens.’
Dean died aged 82 of causes that have remained private in March 2025, two months before what would have been his and Parton’s 59th wedding anniversary.
Pink terrazzo could be seen being put in the star mold to surround the country legend’s name
Crews have been working tierelessly to get the star back to its past form before the weekend
Parton (seen November 2023) fans were aghast as her star on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame was vandalized and is in the process of being repaired just days after her death at 80
Ana Martinez, who is a spokesperson for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, told Our News Outlet on Tuesday that a fan had reported that the star had been vandalized with many scratches
Parton, often referred to as the Queen of Country, enjoyed an illustrious music career spanning six decades and was arguably best known for her hits Jolene and 9 to 5.
The fourth of 12 children, six of whom are now still living, Parton was born in Pittman Center, Tennessee, on January 19, 1946.
Her passing came after months of health woes that saw her pull out of a string of public appearances, fueling fan fears for her wellbeing.
In an interview published just four days before her death, Parton had declared she still had ‘so many things I want to achieve’ and vowed to continue ‘working as long as I can to see everything come to life,’ via People.
She explained that she had been grappling with ‘some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl.’
Parton once told NPR that her 1973 classic Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who developed a flirtatious relationship with Dean.
‘She got this terrible crush on my husband,’ she said at the time. ‘And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.
‘It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying: “Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.”‘
Parton (pictured in London back in March 1993) passed away last week as it emerged at the time that she had been secretly battling cancer, although the specific strain was left undisclosed
Martinez also said that the landmark (seen on Thursday) had already been scheduled for repair last week to fix the cracks in it and a crew cleared all of the flowers and is currently making the repairs
Many fans were very upset about the vandalism as they commented a video posted by local Los Angeles radio news station KNX
Others took a more level-headed approach
Years later, onstage at Glastonbury, she said of the song: ‘I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be. I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.’
Parton and Dean first met at a Nashville laundromat in 1964, when she was 18 and he was 21, and they exchanged vows in May 1966.
‘I’d never been in a laundromat before,’ she recalled in the 2023 documentary Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words. ‘I walked outside there was this good-looking man that drove by the Wishy Washy Laundromat. And he pulled over to the side. So, we started talking and we married two years later.’
Through her decades of high-octane superstardom, Dean remained a constant and supportive figure for Parton behind the scenes.
Parton offered her public a rare glimpse inside her marriage in 2024, revealing the reason her husband refused to attend events with her.
She remarked that her husband was ‘not the least bit interested in being in’ her songs despite loving her work, on Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast.
A telling moment occurred early in their marriage when she persuaded Dean to attend an awards show in 1967 where she won song of the year.
The outing made such an impression on her ‘homebody’ husband that he promptly informed Parton: ‘I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’
Parton married her husband Carl Thomas Dean in 1966 in Ringgold, Georgia
The couple, who renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home, used humor to dissipate any potential for conflict in their decades-long relationship.
Parton raved that her husband was ‘hilarious,’ elaborating: ‘He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny…we have a lot of fun. Anytime [there is] too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far. We never fought back and forth.’
When he died last year, she penned a heartfelt encomium to their ‘many wonderful years together,’ adding: ‘Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.’
