Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 6 decades, Carl Dean, dies
Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Thomas Dean, whom she was married to for nearly 60 years, has died, she said. He was 82.
The music icon, 79, on Monday posted a statement confirming Dean’s death on 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 was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the statement said.
“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 star asked for privacy for the family as they grieve Dean’s death.
Parton and Dean, a businessman from Nashville, married in 1966 after meeting two years prior and mostly kept their relationship out of the public eye.
In a November 2023 interview for her Apple Music show, “What Would Dolly Do? Radio,” Parton opened up about why they kept their relationship so private.
“Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it,” Parton explained at the time. “He went to one thing with me early on when we first married to a BMI Song of the Year (event), and he came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’”
She added, “I never asked him and he never did.”
Parton famously penned one of her biggest songs, “Jolene,” which was released in 1973, about a woman flirting with her husband.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the song in an interview with NPR in 2008, she said, “She got this terrible crush on my husband. 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.”
In May 2016, the longtime couple decided to renew their vows. She told Rolling Stone that they had an intimate ceremony at their Nashville-area home.
“I got all dressed up in the most beautiful gown you’ve ever seen and dressed that husband of mine up. He looked like a handsome dude out of Hollywood,” she gushed. “We had a few family and friends around. We didn’t plan anything big at all because we didn’t want any kind of strain, any kind of tension, any kind of commotion, so we planned it cleverly and carefully. We just had a simple little ceremony at our chapel at our place. We just had just a few people who needed to be there to make sure they got the pictures and the few things that we needed.”
