Dolly Parton’s longtime husband, Carl Dean, passed away on Monday at the age of 82. According to a statement she shared on social media, Dean, who was renowned for his privacy during his nearly 60-year marriage to Parton, passed away in Nashville, Tennessee. “I had a lot of amazing years with Carl. The love we had for more than 60 years is beyond words. “I appreciate your condolences and prayers,” the statement said. When the “9-5” singer initially came in Nashville as an 18-year-old budding vocalist, she met Dean outside a laundry. “I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton said when they first met. He appeared to sincerely want to know who I was and what I stood for.
The couple exchanged vows at a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia, on May 30, 1966, two years later. Dean stayed out of the spotlight during their marriage, preferring to concentrate on his Nashville asphalt paving company. Though he largely stayed out of the limelight, Dean continued to influence Parton’s work, most notably inspiring her classic hit “Jolene.” She told US media in 2008 that the song was about a bank teller who developed a crush on Dean. “She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. I used to comment, “Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank,” as if it were an ongoing joke between us. We don’t have that type of money, in my opinion. It sounds terrible, but it’s actually a quite harmless song overall.
Although Parton made jokes about it, the ambiguity surrounding her connection with Dean led to rumors that he didn’t exist. “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 told the Associated Press in 1984. Together, Parton and Dean did not have any children. According to Parton’s declaration, his siblings Sandra and Donnie are his survivors.