Dolly Parton’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star is being replaced after it was vandalized just days after her death at 80. Crews were seen putting in a new star on Tuesday, Sept. 1, after the original was damaged and appeared to have her name scratched out.
The damage matters because the star is one of the most visible tributes to Parton in Hollywood, and the fix is already in motion. She received the star in 1985 alongside Sylvester Stallone, and the current repair work is being handled by the Hollywood Historic Trust, which maintains and restores Walk of Fame stars.
Ana Martinez said a fan flagged the damage on social media and that the photo showed the star covered in scratches. She said the repair was arranged late last week, the first part of the work has been completed, and the replacement is now curing before it is polished on Friday for fans to enjoy. The timeline shows how quickly the defacement moved from complaint to cleanup.
That speed also highlights the uneasy timing of the vandalism. Parton died on Aug. 25, and her death came shortly after her team said she had been diagnosed with cancer. Even as fans were still mourning her, crews were already working on the damaged star, turning a public act of disrespect into a repair job that should soon leave the Walk of Fame display intact again.
Parton’s place on the Walk of Fame sits alongside a career that reached far beyond music. She won 10 Grammy Awards after 55 nominations, and her Imagination Library has donated more than 200 million books worldwide since it began in 1995 with a focus on her hometown of Sevierville, Tenn. For now, the question left is not whether the star will be restored, but how quickly the polished replacement will be back in place for the fans who come looking for it.
