<div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-0"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">It honestly didn’t matter whether or not Dolly Parton was going to show up for the opening of her new truck stop in rural Tennessee. Debbe Lamey Welch would not have missed it.</p><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">She pulled together an appropriate outfit — glittering silver-fringed cape and boots, rhinestone-studded cowboy hat, blonde hair extensions — and left her job at a senior living center just before the bingo game started to make the nearly two-hour drive. Just in case, she packed some records and memorabilia in hopes of snagging an autograph.</p><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">“I thought that this would be the appropriate dress, just in case she might decide to stop by,” Ms. Welch, 52, said, comparing fans’ feelings for Ms. Parton with concern for a parent or other close family member who is sick. “Everyone loves Dolly Parton.”</p><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">Ms. Parton did in fact show up, in a fringed blue outfit and sparkling heels, though only for a few minutes. It was a rare public appearance for the 80-year-old country music superstar, even in her home state. Health concerns, which began last year as she <a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/arts/music/dolly-parton-las-vegas.html" title="">postponed</a> and later canceled a Las Vegas residency, grew to the point that Ms. Parton took to social media last fall to confirm that “<a class="css-yywogo" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/arts/music/dolly-parton-health.html" title="">I ain’t dead yet</a>.”</p></div><aside aria-label="companion column" class="css-ew4tgv"></aside></div><div data-testid="Dropzone-1"></div><div class="css-s99gbd StoryBodyCompanionColumn" data-testid="companionColumn-1"><div class="css-53u6y8"><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">She has not fully detailed what she has described as “health challenges.” In a recent update, she said she had responded well to treatment after, as she put it, her immune and digestive systems “got all out of whack” in recent years.</p><p class="css-140ip4z e1me5xab0">So even if fans were not expecting to glimpse her at the grand opening of Dolly’s Tennesseean Travel Stop in Cornersville, about 60 miles south of Nashville, they were eager to know that she was OK.</p><div class="css-kbghgg"><div class="css-121kum4"><div class="css-171d1bw"></div><div class="css-asuuk5"><noscript><div class="css-7axq9l" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="css-1u67kh9" data-tpl="i" height="24" viewbox="0 0 24 24" width="24"><path clip-rule="evenodd" d="M2.5 12a9.5 9.5 0 1 1 19 0 9.5 9.5 0 0 1-19 0Zm8.5 1.75v-7.5h2v7.5h-2Zm0 2v2h2v-2h-2Z" fill="currentColor" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></svg><div class="css-6yo1no" data-testid="optimistic-truncator-noscript-message"><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">We are having trouble retrieving the article content.</p><p class="css-3kpklk" data-tpl="t">Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.</p></div></div></noscript><div class="css-1dv1kvn" id="optimistic-truncator-a11y" tabindex="-1"><hr/><p>Thank you for your patience while we verify access. 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