- Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, has died at age 82 in Nashville.
- Parton and Dean first met outside a laundromat in 1964 and married two years later in 1966.
- Dean has largely stayed out of the spotlight since then, but he inspired Parton’s hit “Jolene.”
Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, has died at age 82, the singer said in a post on Instagram on Monday.
“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 was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the 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,” the post continued. “The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.”
Parton and Dean met outside a laundromat on the day she moved to Nashville in 1964.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me). He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about,” Parton said of the meeting in a post on her official website.
Sparks flew between them almost immediately.
“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,'” Dean told Entertainment Tonight in 2016 in a rare public statement for the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary. “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.”
After two years of dating, they married in 1966 in a private ceremony in Georgia.
Since their marriage, Dean has largely stayed out of the spotlight.
Parton received her first songwriting award in 1966 for “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” recorded by Bill Phillips. Parton and Dean attended the ceremony and dinner together, but they did not continue making joint public appearances.
“After the dinner, we walked back out, and they brought us our car — I don’t even remember what we were driving then — and we got in it and headed for home,” Parton said at the Marty Stuart Jam in 2011, per country music news site The Boot. “Carl turned to me and said, ‘Dolly, I want you to have everything you want, and I’m happy for you, but don’t you ever ask me to go to another one of them dang things again!'”
Dean also inspired one of Parton’s biggest hits, “Jolene.”
The story for the song came from a bank teller who had a “terrible crush” on her husband, Parton said in a 2008 interview with NPR.
“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,” she told NPR.
In 2019, the singer told Business Insider that a typical date night with her husband involved a romantic dinner at home, during which they would both get dressed up for each other.
“We’ve always been sweethearts as well as being best friends, as well as being husband and wife,” she said. “So we just decide what we want to do.”
A representative for Parton told BI that the singer had no additional comment.
