Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband of practically 60 years, died Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82.
In accordance with an announcement offered to The Related Press by Parton’s publicist, Dean shall be laid to relaxation in a non-public ceremony with rapid household attending.
“Carl and I spent many fantastic years collectively. Phrases cannot do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thanks in your prayers and sympathy,” Parton wrote in an announcement.
The household has requested for respect and privateness at the moment. No explanation for loss of life 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 youngsters. Parton referred to his mom as “Mama Dean.”
Dean is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.
Parton and Dean saved 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 wish to pose with him on the duvet of {a magazine} “So that people could at least know that I’m not married to a wart or something.”
