Dolly Parton’s Husband Carl Dean Made Rare Outing 5 Years Before His Death
Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean preferred the quiet life.
Before the country music legend announced March 3 that her husband of 58 years tragically passed away in Nashville at the age of 82, it had been half a decade since he was last seen in public.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” Dolly, 79, said in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter). “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
During their marriage, the two were adamant about keeping their private lives completely out of the spotlight. Indeed, Dean was last photographed in public in 2019 outside of their Tennessee home for the first time in four decades.
Because while he spent over 60 years being the “Jolene” singer’s biggest fan, Carl decided, after accompanying her to an event in 1967, that the glitz and glamour of Hollywood events was just not for him.
“I rented him a tux and begged him to go, and he did,” Dolly recalled on the Dumb Blonde podcast in December. “And oh, he was so uncomfortable the whole night.”
“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,’” she continued. “And he never did.”
And while the couple did not show their affection through extravagant nights out, the “9 to 5” singer did give occasional insight into the sweet relationship they shared.
“It is important to have someone there in your corner and you know they’ll love you for just who you are,” Dolly told E! News in May. “There’s a great comfort in knowing that someone loves you exactly for who you are—because he fell in love with me before I became a star.”
In fact, their differences created a unique dynamic that she noted has “worked for us because we both do different things and it’s exciting when we are together.”
“We just enjoy each other,” she continued. “One of the things that we like to do—not necessarily a date night, we have a lot of date days—we have our little RV and we like to travel around. Going down and get some food, or I’ll make a picnic and we go down to the river.”
To look back at the sweet story of their love, keep reading.
New Girl in Town
Dolly Parton left two boyfriends behind in her hometown of Sevierville, Tenn., so getting into a new relationship was the last thing on her mind when she moved to Nashville in 1964, right after graduating from high school.
Alas, she met Carl Dean while walking down the street on her way to the laundromat the day she arrived in Music City.
As remembered by Parton (Dean—who died March 3, 2025, at the age of 82—never spoke to the press), he was driving by in a white Chevrolet when he called out, “You’re gonna get sunburnt out here, little lady!”
They got to talking “and I fell for him, and he fell for me,” she wrote in her 2020 book Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics. In another interview, the 5-foot artist, who was 18 when they met, recalled how tan Dean was as he towered over her at 6-foot-2. (The 22-year-old had an asphalt paving business with his father, so was bronzed from working outside.)
She did not, however, hop right into his car. “You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you,” she pointed out, per Stephen Miller‘s 2011 biography, Smart Blonde. Parton did invite Dean to visit her at her aunt and uncle’s house the next day, which he did, though she would only sit with him outside. He came back every day for a week and when he took her out for their first date, he drove her to his parents’ house first because, Parton said, “he said he knew right from the minute he saw me that that’s the one he wanted.”
