All About Carl Dean, Dolly Parton's Reclusive Husband of Nearly 60 Years

Mar. 15, 2025

Dolly Parton’s husbandCarl Dean has died.

The very private husband of the country music legend was 82 years old. The singer, 79, announced his death via social media on Monday, March 3.

Dean was known to stay out of the spotlight, instead allowing the “9 to 5” singer to shine.

The couple met in a Nashville laundromat when a young Parton was new to town, and remained married for 58 years followingtheir 1966 weddinguntil his death.

Carl Dean and Dolly Parton in an undated photo.courtesy Dolly Parton

courtesy Dolly Parton

“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,” Parton’s post continued. “The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”

Days later, Dolly shared another statement onInstagram, thanking fans and loved ones for their support after her loss.

“This is a love note to family, friends, and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for theloss of my beloved husband Carl,” Dolly wrote in white text on a black background. “I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me. He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you,”

Here’s everything to know about Carl Thomas Dean.

Dolly Parton and Carl Dean.Dolly Parton/Instagram

Dolly Parton/Instagram

They met at a Nashville laundromat

Parton was just 18 years old when she met Dean, then 21, outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in 1964 on her very first day in Nashville.

“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she toldThe New York Timesin 1976 of her move to start her career.

“I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband."

They married two years later

According to Dolly Parton’sofficial website, the couple tied the knot two years later on May 30, 1966.

They traveled Ringgold, GA, with her mother Avie Lee and had a simple, private ceremony with only Avie Lee, the preacher and the preacher’s wife in attendance. They celebrated their golden (50th) anniversary in 2016.

In a rare interview withEntertainment Tonightin 2016, Dean shared his first thoughts after meeting Parton.

“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’ ” he said. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’' And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”

Dolly Parton and Carl Dean.Courtesy of Dolly Parton

He worked in the asphalt business

For years, Dean ran an asphalt-laying company in his native Nashville, operating the pavement business as far back as 1977.

He was a loner and homebody who liked to stay out of the spotlight

“My husband is a loner,”she previously told PEOPLE. “He doesn’t particularly care about being around anybody but me. He’s just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo.”

However, Parton also toldParadethat Dean was “very secure within himself,” and didn’t worry about her fame or the male gaze that came along with it.

“This is his statement: ‘Well, hell, I know it’s not easy out there. I’d feel less about any man that didn’t fall in love with you,’ ” she shared.

“He does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton toldEntertainment Tonightin 2020 of her husband’s reclusiveness. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”

“I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him, and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,” she added. “He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have.”

Their vacations were low-key

Fame and fortune may have afforded them the ability to travel anywhere, but they kept their vacations simple.

Their RV adventures don’t last long. “He loves to go on vacation or on little trips, but he doesn’t want to be gone a long time,” she says. “He wants to be mostly around the house. He knows I’m just the opposite. I can’t go enough places. I can’t do enough things. He loves that. He’s independent. He doesn’t need me in his face, and it’s the same with me.

He inspired Parton’s hit “Jolene”

One of Parton’s biggest hitswas written with Dean on the brain.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton toldNPRin 2008 about a flirtatious woman.

“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.”

source: people.com