Dolly Comes Home for Parade in Pigeon Forge

Dolly’s 2008 Homecoming Parade, a rite of spring in this tourist town next door to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has attracted 101 units, some from as far away as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The namesake grand marshal, of course, is Tennessee native Dolly Parton, who grew up just a few miles outside of Pigeon Forge. She is tied to the local tourism economy because of Dollywood, the theme park that is Tennessee’s most popular ticketed attraction.

The parade is April 11, starting at 6 p.m. Spectators are expected to line the complete parade route, more than two miles along the Parkway in the middle of Pigeon Forge between Traffic Lights 3 through 6. The parade is a project of the City of Pigeon Forge’s Department of Special Events.

Details of Parton’s float are a tightly held secret, a tradition throughout the parade’s 23-year history.

Marching bands from Pigeon Forge High School and Sevier County High School (Parton’s alma mater) will be joined by bands from Southern Fulton High School in Warfordsburg, Pa., Wilmington Area High School in Ambridge, Pa., Rockmark High School in Rockmart, Ga., and Indian Valley High School in Gnadenhutten, Ohio.

The most distant entrant is the Jack Links Beef Jerky F-650 show truck that was featured on cable TV’s “Trick My Truck.” Its home base is Minong, Wisc.

Another automotive entrant is a 1948 Ford pickup truck owned by Maurice Putnam from Seymour, Tenn. Putnam’s truck is featured in the photography for Parton’s newest CD, “Backwoods Barbie.”

The parade lineup also includes equestrian units, car clubs, floats representing Pigeon Forge’s theaters, dance teams, twirlers and a float from the Knoxville Zoo that celebrates the zoo’s 60th anniversary.

Information courtesy of Pigeon Forge Department of Tourism