Carl Dean, the husband of Dolly Parton of over 60 years, has died in Nashville, Tennessee, the singer announced on her social media on Monday.
“Carl and I had many wonderful years together. Words cannot express the love we have shared for more than 60 years. “I appreciate your prayers and sympathy,” Parton said in a statement. Dean was 82 years old.
According to Parton’s publicist, Dean died on Monday and will be laid to rest in a private ceremony attended by his immediate family.
The couple met in 1964, when they ran into each other outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat on Parton’s first day in Nashville. He “swept her off her feet,” as Parton later put it, and the couple married two years later.
“I was surprised and delighted that he looked at my face while talking to me (this is unusual for me). “He seemed genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about,” she said in an interview posted on her website to commemorate their 50th wedding anniversary.
Dean was a businessman who ran an asphalt-laying company in Nashville before retiring. He remained largely out of the spotlight as Parton rose to prominence, and they were rarely seen together in public.
In a 2011 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Parton revealed that he had only seen her perform a few times because “he gets nervous.”
In 2016, Parton stated that she had not expected him to agree to a ceremony to renew their wedding vows.
“Well, he’s shy about the public, in fact, I was surprised that he was willing to do this, but he’s so proud too that we lasted 50 years,” she told me.
Parton and Dean never had children together. In a 2019 interview with CBS “Sunday Morning,” Parton was asked if she regretted it. She said, “No, absolutely not.” It was not meant to be. And I do not regret it. I’ve never regretted it.
I mean, there was a choice. So you make your decisions, you make your sacrifices, and I never look back. Early on, I knew I was going to walk that road until God told me to stop. And I’m still walking it, and He hasn’t told me anything about quitting yet!”
According to Parton’s statement, Dean is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie.