Dean was notoriously private, with very few images of him shared online.
Photo: Katherine Bomboy/NBC
Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of more than 60 years, died at the age of 82, per Parton’s social media accounts. Dean died on March 3 in Nashville, Tennessee. Parton added a brief statement to the announcement, writing: “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.” While Dean was extremely private throughout Parton’s career — there are very few photos posted of him online, outside of throwback photos Parton has shared and the album cover for My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy — he’s remained a huge supporter and muse for the singer. The couple met when Parton had just moved to Nashville in 1964 at the Wishy-Washy laundromat. “I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new borne, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved,” Parton shared to the New York Times in 1976. “Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
Dean inspired many of Parton’s hit songs, most notably “Jolene.” A bank teller had a “terrible crush” on Dean and while in real life Parton did not feel threatened by “Jolene,” she did take inspiration from the inadequacy someone can feel in a relationship. Parton told NPR about the song’s origins. “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.”
Despite being a huge part of her music, Dean never attended any public event with Parton, a choice they both agreed on early in her career. She shared that he felt “so uncomfortable” at an awards show they attended together in 1967. “He said, ‘Look, now I want you to do everything you want to do, and I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ And he never did,” Parton explained on a podcast. Parton does credit his introverted nature to the success of their long-lasting marriage: “I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can. He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have. We’ve been together 56 years, married 54.”
