March 3 (UPI) — Dolly Parton’s husband of 60 years, Carl Thomas Dean, died at the age of 82, the country singer and actress said Monday.
Parton, 79, shared the news of her spouse’s death via Instagram.
“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,” the post read.
She spoke to People three years ago about her marriage, saying: “He loves me the way I am.”
Her husband shunned the limelight, and focused on his asphalt business, and mainly stayed at their large home in Tara, outside of Nashville.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice, 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.”
They didn’t have any children.
Parton said her passport reads “Dolly Parton Dean, and she sometimes uses Dean when signing contracts.
Dean was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1942.
She met her husband in 1964.
“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told The New York Times in 1976. “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.”
She added, “I wouldn’t go out with him. I mean, that was somethin’ we was taught. You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you. But I said, ‘You’re welcome to come up to the house tomorrow because I’m babysittin’ my little nephew.’ Dean came over every day that week, and the first time they went out together, he took her to meet his parents.”
In a rare interview in 2016 she told Entertainment Tonight: “My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’ 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.”
They married in Ringgold, Ga., in 1966. Their only witnesses: her mother, the pastor and his wife.”
Though Dean wasn’t in the spotlight, he inspired her songwriting.
“Most of these songs I chose because of Carl, and because I knew they were good songs, ’cause he knows good music,” she told Good Morning America in 2023.
