Dolly Parton's multifaceted legacy showcased at Nashville museum and hotel

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Dolly Parton's longtime creative director, Steve Summers, designed hundreds of dresses and outfits for the late singer and entertainer every year, so he saw her in many stages of her career.

“Every person in here has a different Dolly Parton that they are in love with,” Summers told a crowd of fans gathered Tuesday for the opening of a new museum in Nashville dedicated to the beloved singer who died in August at age 80.

The 20,000-square-foot Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum includes exhibits focused on many different aspects of her life and legacy, from her Smoky Mountain roots and Dollywood, to her movie roles, her fashion , her faith, her family and the Imagination Library.

“You’ve got to find her and find out where you fell in love with her and then follow the path from there. So I think the journey is what most people are going to enjoy the most,” Summers said.

The museum is located inside a 240-room themed hotel called Dolly Parton’s SongTeller, where the lobby and open spaces are adorned with glitter, rhinestones, guitars, butterflies, Dolly portraits and lots and lots of pink. The building also includes two performance spaces, a cafe and hotel rooms that come with musical instruments to encourage songwriting.

One of the not-to-be-missed sights is Parton's original wedding dress that she wore when she got married to husband Carl Dean. The dress was believed lost until Parton's niece Rebecca Seaver, who is curating the museum, found it about a year ago wrapped in a paper bag and shoved into a trunk, Summers said.

For many in Parton's orbit, the opening of the museum and hotel is bittersweet without the person who inspired it.

“We were as surprised as anybody that she’s not here to see it,” Summers said. “It’s beautiful to get to see all of her work come to life, and it’s hard to know that she won’t ever have seen it.”