Randy Travis' hometown of Marshville, N.C., has a new welcome sign -- and it's missing the singer's name.

Visitors or passers-by used to enter Marshville to a sign that read “Marshville, Home of Randy Travis & Country Living," but the city has streamlined their welcome sign, removing any reference to Travis.

Randy Travis sign2
Courtesy of Kristen Mantel
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Town officials say that the change in the sign has nothing to do with disrespecting Travis, and the decision was not based on the singer's legal and personal battles in recent years -- including arrests for public intoxication and driving while intoxicated after crashing his car while driving naked.

“It’s nice, it’s dignified, and it gets the job done,” says Town Manager Fern Shubert of the new design. “There was no disrespect to Randy Travis. It looks more like your traditional welcome sign.”

The old sign was plastered with symbols -- including a train, corn stalk, guitar and chicken. The new, more modern version simply reads, "Welcome to Marshville, North Carolina,” over the illustration of a train, a nod to Mashville's history as a railroad town.

Randy Travis sing
Courtesy of Kristen Mantel
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Feelings about the sign change have been mixed from Marshville citizens. Some people, including Janice Stitt, who went to high school with Travis, this his name should have remained.

“This is where he is from, and we should be proud of him,” she says. “He put Marshville on the map.”

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