Carl Dean, the cherished husband of legendary singer Dolly Parton, known for living a life away from the public gaze, has passed away at the age of 82. Dean died in Nashville, Tennessee, as confirmed by Parton’s publicist in a statement. His funeral will be a private gathering attended only by close family members.
Dolly Parton shared heartfelt words, mourning the loss of her husband. “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,” she expressed in her statement. The family requests privacy, and the exact cause of Dean’s death has not been disclosed.
The couple’s story began in a chance encounter outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat on Parton’s very first day in Nashville at age 18. She reminisced about their meeting, saying, “I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me). He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Two years after their initial meeting, Parton and Dean exchanged vows on May 30, 1966, Memorial Day, in an intimate ceremony held in Ringgold, Georgia. Dean was a successful businessman, running an asphalt-paving company in Nashville. He came from a family of three children, born to Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean. Parton fondly referred to his mother as “Mama Dean.” Dean is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie, besides his wife, Parton.
Carl Dean’s influence extended beyond their lives together, notably inspiring one of Parton’s greatest hits, “Jolene.” In 2008, Parton revealed to NPR that the song was about a flirty bank teller who had developed a crush on Dean. She recounted, “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.”
Throughout the decades, Parton and Dean maintained a protective privacy surrounding their marriage. In 1984, Parton jokingly told an interviewer, “A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me.” She humorously suggested they should pose together for a magazine cover to dispel myths about her husband’s non-existence. “So that people could at least know that I’m not married to a wart or something,” she quipped.
This year, Parton also shared with a news outlet that Dean played a role in inspiring her recent “Rockstar” album. “He’s a big rock and roller,” Parton said, adding that “My Blue Tears,” a song she wrote during her time with “The Porter Wagoner Show” in the late ’60s and early ’70s, was one of Dean’s favorites. “I thought, ’Well, I better put one of Carl’s favorites of mine in here.” In a temporary departure from her traditional country roots, the album also features some of Dean’s preferred tracks, including Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
