Many Dolly Parton fans spent Tuesday begging God, Jolene, or whatever higher power they believed in to please let the country star be okay after her sister, Freida Parton, asked for their prayers on Facebook. “Last night, I was up all night praying for my sister, Dolly,” Parton posted (via Complex). “Many of you know she hasn’t been feeling her best lately. I truly believe in the power of prayer, and I have been lead [sic] to ask all of the world that loves her to be prayer warriors and pray with me. She’s strong, she’s loved, and with all the prayers being lifted for her, I know in my heart she’s going to be just fine. Godspeed, my sissy Dolly. We all love you!”
Parton’s massive fanbase does, indeed, love her. They also had good reason to be concerned that something more serious was going on. Last week, the singer announced on Instagram that she was postponing her planned Las Vegas residency due to unspecified “health challenges” for which she had to have a “few procedures.” This wasn’t “the usual trip to see my plastic surgeon,” she joked. She just “need[ed] a little time to get show ready, as they say.”
In a follow-up post, Freida Parton reassured fans that her sister was going to be okay, and that she didn’t mean to freak anyone out. “I didn’t mean to scare anyone or make it sound so serious,” she wrote, promising that Dolly has just been “a little under the weather, and I asked for prayers because I so strongly believe in the power of prayer.” Her request was “nothing more than a little sister asking for prayers for her big sister,” she added, thanking fans for “lifting her up. Your love truly makes a difference.”
Parton’s residency has been rescheduled from December of this year to September 2026. As she wrote in her own post, fans shouldn’t worry about her “quittin’ the business because God hasn’t said anything about stopping yet.” Hopefully she’ll be rested up and ready to get back to that 9 to 5 in no time.
