Posted on 03/04/2025 8:32:30 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Carl Dean, Dolly Parton's devoted husband of nearly 60 years who avoided the spotlight and inspired her timeless hit “Jolene,” died Monday. He was 82.
According to a statement provided to The Associated Press by Parton's publicist, Dean died in Nashville, Tennessee. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending.
“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 wrote in a statement.
The family has asked for respect and privacy. No cause of death was announced.
Parton met Dean outside 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 — May 30, 1966 — in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.
Dean was a businessman, having owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville. His parents, Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean, had three children. Parton referred to his mother as “Mama Dean.”
Dean is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.
He inspired Parton’s classic, “Jolene.” Parton told NPR in 2008 that she wrote the song about a flirty bank teller who seemed to take an interest in Dean.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” she said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us —
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Will it be classified as a motor boating death ?
60 years married to a hugely successful public performer and Hollywood/Nashville star.
Definitely an outlier - congratulations to them both.
Saturday I was watching the series Blacklist, they had an actress called Jolene and played that song, which the actress fit:
Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
RE: Definitely an outlier - congratulations to them both.
He didn’t fall for Jolene. :)
60 years…wow, puts tears in the eyes. He had to be a strong man to support,his wife through her career and fame.
This is cute and touching…
“Parton met Dean outside 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 — May 30, 1966 — in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.”
And it lasted 60 years until “Death us do part.”
Carl Dean kept himself busy while his wife was on tour and recording.
Carl was a businessman, having owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville. They have two daughters.
She’s such a sweetheart. I’m glad she got to have a long, successful Love Story. :)
“”They have two daughters.””
ODD that two siblings are mentioned but no mention of children from the marriage to Dolly...
:-)
They married two years later, on Memorial Day — May 30, 1966
Dang, that’s when I missed my chance. Of course, I was nine years old then.
He never gave an interview. He never posed for a magazine. He attended one industry event early in their marriage and told her to never ask him to go to another one.
That would have been me.
Or should have been me. Either way. But no events where I have to wear dress shoes.
You probably had mom doing your laundry and weren’t at the laundromat, either.
\
So sweet! May he RIP. Sounds like he was a great person. Sorry for Dolly:(
“Sorry for Dolly:(”
Yes, indeed. What a loss after 60 years. We are in our early 70s and are facing that.
We went to every Wishy Washy laundromat that day - except the one in Nashville. Figures.
LOL...I’m sitting here alone laughing out loud. Well, maybe a loud chuckle!
:-)
Harder to make quips when you respect a person, but then they probably have a decent sense of humor.
Jolene reportedly said “If I can’t have him, no one can.”
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