Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of almost 60 years, died Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82.
In line with a press release offered to The Related Press by Parton’s publicist, Dean shall be laid to relaxation in a non-public ceremony with quick household attending.
“Carl and I spent many great years collectively. Phrases cannot do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thanks in your prayers and sympathy,” Parton wrote in a press release.
The household has requested for respect and privateness presently. No explanation for demise was introduced.
Parton met Dean exterior the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton described the meeting. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
They married two years later, on Memorial Day — Could 30, 1966 — in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.
Dean was a businessman, having owned an asphalt-paving enterprise in Nashville. His mother and father, Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean, had three kids. Parton referred to his mom as “Mama Dean.”
Dean is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.
Parton and Dean stored strict privateness round their relationship for many years, Parton telling The Related Press in 1984: “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 joked that she’d prefer to pose with him on the quilt of {a magazine} “So that people could at least know that I’m not married to a wart or something.”
