Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Thomas Dean has died. He was 82.
Dean has been married to the country legend since 1966 but has remained relatively out of the spotlight despite Parton’s global fame.
The singer shared the news of Dean’s death via a statement on Instagram, saying “words can’t do justice” to the “love [they] shared for over 60 years”.
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“Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82,” the statement read.
“He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie.”
A quote from Parton 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 family has asked for privacy during this difficult time,” the statement concluded.
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Dean was a businessman, having owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville. He is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.
Parton and Dean met outside their local laundromat in Nashville in 1964 right before the singer’s career took off. She was 18 and he was 21.
As it happens, it was the very first day Parton had moved to the famed ‘music city’, known for its legendary country music festival and major singers like Willie Ackerman and Patsy Cline.
Absolutely smitten, the pair married two years later on May 30, 1966.
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Desiring privacy from the very beginning, they married in a small ceremony at a Baptist church in Ringgold, California, with only Parton’s mother as a witness.
Despite their decades of marriage, Parton and Dean were notoriously private.
Dean tended to avoid public appearances with his wife and the singer shared only a handful of photos of him over the years.
Parton has also only spoken of Dean – always in high esteem – on a number of occasions.
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In a 2022 interview with ET Canada, Parton revealed shared the key to her successful marriage, saying she “stays going”.
”I like it when people say, ‘How did it last so long?’ I say, ‘I stay going,'” she told the outlet.
“You know, there’s a lot to be said about that. So, we’re not in each other’s face all the time. He’s not in the business, so we have different interests, but yet we have the things we love to do together.
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“So it was meant to be, I think. He was the one I was supposed to have and vice versa.”
Parton also said the couple both have a “warped sense of humour”, which she says was also they key to their enduring romance.
Earlier that year, Parton spoke about keeping her marriage private on The Kelleigh Bannen Show on Apple Music.
“I’ve known how to keep my husband private,” she said.
“It’s just natural to me to protect the things and the people I love and to protect my own privacy.”
Dean was also the inspiration behind Parton’s classic hit Jolene. She told NPR in 2008 that she wrote the song about a redhead bank teller who seemed to have “this terrible crush” on Dean.
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