Ken Adams, the mayor of Olive Branch, Mississippi, has balked at lowering the flag in honor of the late Dolly Parton—who passed away last Tuesday.
Adams acknowledged Dolly Parton’s universal appeal and good works in a social media post, while also challenging the appropriateness of lowering the flag in her honor.
According to Adams, “It should be reserved for our military heroes, fallen first responders, presidents and other major national leaders, or events that have had a tremendous impact on our country. If we lower the flag every time a well-known or beloved person passes away, I believe we eventually lessen the meaning of the gesture.”
Most recently, President Trump ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff for Senator Lindsey Graham, who died of natural causes in July. (Well, there are some conspiracy chasers who think the Russian FSB was involved, but we’ll table that discussion for the moment.)
And then there was the lowering of the flag for the assassinated Charlie Kirk last year. Kirk was a noteworthy but controversial celebrity/activist who divided public opinion.
On the other hand, no presidential order was given to lower the flag for Jesse Jackson, a civil rights activist and politician who died in February.
(Jackson was also a corporate grifter extraordinaire. I met him once when I worked at Toyota. Jackson initially threatened the company with a boycott after he objected to a 2001 RAV4 print ad. Toyota’s management team quickly caved to Jackson’s demands and hired his Rainbow PUSH organization for various diversity consulting projects. But I digress.)
But let’s play devil’s advocate here. If we lower the flag for Charlie Kirk, then why shouldn’t we lower the flag for Jesse Jackson? While Jesse Jackson certainly had his detractors, he was no less divisive than Charlie Kirk was.
We can also bet that if Kamala Harris had won the 2024 election, the exact opposite would have taken place. The flag would have been lowered to half-staff for Jackson but not for Kirk.
Flags were lowered for former President Jimmy Carter after he passed away at the age of 100 in 2024. No one objected to that. But does every politician who dies in office get the half-staff treatment? What about former politicians who die after leaving office?
Two members of the House of Representatives died in 2026: Representative David Scott of Georgia and Representative Doug LaMalfa of California.
LaMalfa was a Republican and Scott was a Democrat. Both received the half-staff treatment prescribed for a sitting member of Congress. But Trump went a step further for LaMalfa, personally ordering flags lowered nationwide and publicly praising him as a “true American Patriot.” I can find no comparable personal presidential tribute for Scott.
Which brings us back to Dolly Parton. Yes, she was a talented entertainer and a wonderful person. But what about Chuck Norris, who died in March at the age of 86? Or Robert Duvall, who died at the age of 95 in February?
And what about Taylor Swift? If Taylor Swift were to meet an untimely demise before President Trump leaves the White House, would he issue a half-staff decree for her? Almost certainly not—given the way the two have publicly feuded.
The point here is that, yes, Mayor Adams of Olive Branch, Mississippi, does come across as a bit of a killjoy, grousing about lowering the American flag for the universally loved and admired Dolly Parton.
But he also raises a valid argument. A nationwide decree to lower the flag to half-staff is supposed to be a solemn gesture, to be done under certain specific conditions—a national tragedy like 9/11, or the death of a commander-in-chief. Whatever the standard, it should be free of partisanship. And perhaps there is never a truly valid argument for doing it following the death of a celebrity—unless that celebrity has died in the service of the nation.
-ET