“Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” Parton wrote about her husband of 58 years
Carl Dean and Dolly Parton in an undated photo. Photo:courtesy Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean has died.
The very private husband of the country music legend was 82 years old. The singer, 79, announced his death via social media on Monday, March 3.
Dean was known to stay out of the spotlight, instead allowing the “9 to 5” singer to shine.
The couple met in a Nashville laundromat when a young Parton was new to town, and remained married for 58 years following their 1966 wedding until his death.
“Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” her social media post read.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” Parton’s post continued. “The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”
Here’s everything to know about Carl Thomas Dean.
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean. Dolly Parton/Instagram
Parton was just 18 years old when she met Dean, then 21, outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in 1964 on her very first day in Nashville.
“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told The New York Times in 1976 of her move to start her career.
“I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
According to Dolly Parton’s official website, the couple tied the knot two years later on May 30, 1966.
They traveled Ringgold, GA, with her mother Avie Lee and had a simple, private ceremony with only Avie Lee, the preacher and the preacher’s wife in attendance. They celebrated their golden (50th) anniversary in 2016.
In a rare interview with Entertainment Tonight in 2016, Dean shared his first thoughts after meeting Parton.
“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’ ” he said. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.” And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean. Courtesy of Dolly Parton
For years, Dean ran an asphalt-laying company in his native Nashville, operating the pavement business as far back as 1977.
“My husband is a loner,” she previously told PEOPLE. “He doesn’t particularly care about being around anybody but me. He’s just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo.”
However, Parton also told Parade that Dean was “very secure within himself,” and didn’t worry about her fame or the male gaze that came along with it.
“This is his statement: ‘Well, hell, I know it’s not easy out there. I’d feel less about any man that didn’t fall in love with you,’ ” she shared.
“He does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton told Entertainment Tonight in 2020 of her husband’s reclusiveness. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”
“I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him, and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,” she added. “He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have.”
Fame and fortune may have afforded them the ability to travel anywhere, but they kept their vacations simple.
“We like to get out in our little RV and just be simple,” Parton told PEOPLE in 2015. “I love to read, I love to cook, I love to be with my husband. I put on my little comfy clothes – I call them my baby clothes – and we just relax.”
Their RV adventures don’t last long. “He loves to go on vacation or on little trips, but he doesn’t want to be gone a long time,” she says. “He wants to be mostly around the house. He knows I’m just the opposite. I can’t go enough places. I can’t do enough things. He loves that. He’s independent. He doesn’t need me in his face, and it’s the same with me.
One of Parton’s biggest hits was written with Dean on the brain.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008 about a flirtatious woman.
“And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
