Nashville park dedicates a historic bench in memory of the singer Dolly Parton

A historic bench in Nashville's Centennial Park has been dedicated in memory of Dolly Parton, marking her connection to the park, her work in the city and her long campaign to get children reading.

The bench is a specific one. In 1975 the photographer Raeanne Rubenstein shot Parton in Centennial Park's Sunken Garden, taking around 60 images of the then-rising singer lounging on one of the park's historic conversation benches. A printed photograph from that session will go on permanent display in the Parthenon when its Athens of the South exhibit reopens.

The literacy link runs through the last eight years. Parton's Imagination Library has partnered with the Centennial Park Conservancy's Kidsville programme across that period, running childhood literacy work at the Parthenon and at Musicians Corner.

"Dolly has always understood the power of a story, to open a child's mind, spark a dream and inspire them to imagine what is possible," said Brooke Siegel-Rochelle, Senior Manager of Imagination Library of Middle Tennessee, who called it meaningful to see her honoured in a park where she made memories early in her career.

The dedication was celebrated on Saturday August 29, when Metro Parks and the Centennial Park Conservancy marked the grand opening of the park's revitalised north side. That work added an event pavilion for community gatherings and Croquet Cafe, the first restaurant inside a Nashville park.

The plaque on the bench near the Sunken Garden reads: "Turn a Page Sing a Song And imagine For Dolly, We will always love you." It follows her death at 80 and the health problems that kept her from a Dollywood appearance in her final year, and it adds a permanent marker in a city her country career helped define.