![](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/1CZdQvH_HXdvPbW-nV5fHL5M1zk=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2):format(webp)\/dolly-parton-Carl-Dean--13_03032025-59fd39623bd14549bd426e6dd983f2fb.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carl Dean and Dolly Parton in an undated photo. Photo:courtesy Dolly Parton<\/p>\n
Dolly Parton\u2019s husband\u00a0Carl Dean has died.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Dean was known to stay out of the spotlight, instead allowing the \u201c9 to 5\u201d singer to shine.<\/p>\n
The couple met in a Nashville laundromat when a young Parton was new to town, and remained married for 58 years following\u00a0their 1966 wedding\u00a0until his death.<\/p>\n
Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for<\/strong>\u00a0PEOPLE\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/strong>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cCarl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,\u201d her social media post read.<\/p>\n \u201cCarl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can\u2019t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,\u201d Parton\u2019s post continued. \u201cThe family asks for privacy during this difficult time.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s everything to know about Carl Thomas Dean.<\/p>\n Dolly Parton and Carl Dean. Dolly Parton\/Instagram<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,\u201d she told\u00a0The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0in 1976 of her move to start her career.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in such a hurry to get here. And after I\u2019d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin\u2019 down the street, just lookin\u2019 at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein\u2019 from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Dolly Parton\u2019s\u00a0official website, the couple tied the knot two years later on May 30, 1966.<\/p>\n They traveled Ringgold, GA, with her mother Avie Lee and had a simple, private ceremony with only Avie Lee, the preacher and the preacher\u2019s wife in attendance. They celebrated their golden (50th) anniversary in 2016.<\/p>\n In a rare interview with\u00a0Entertainment Tonight<\/em>\u00a0in 2016, Dean shared his first thoughts after meeting Parton.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first thought was \u2018I\u2019m gonna marry that girl,\u2019 \u201d he said. \u201cMy second thought was, \u2018Lord she\u2019s good lookin.\u201d And that was the day my life began. I wouldn\u2019t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dolly Parton and Carl Dean. Courtesy of Dolly Parton<\/p>\n For years, Dean ran an asphalt-laying company in his native Nashville, operating the pavement business as far back as 1977.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband is a loner,\u201d\u00a0she previously told PEOPLE. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t particularly care about being around anybody but me. He\u2019s just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Parton also told\u00a0Parade\u00a0that Dean was \u201cvery secure within himself,\u201d and didn\u2019t worry about her fame or the male gaze that came along with it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is his statement: \u2018Well, hell, I know it\u2019s not easy out there. I\u2019d feel less about any man that didn\u2019t fall in love with you,\u2019 \u201d she shared.<\/p>\n \u201cHe does not want to be in the spotlight at all,\u201d Parton told\u00a0Entertainment Tonight<\/em>\u00a0in 2020 of her husband\u2019s reclusiveness. \u201cIt\u2019s just not who he is. He\u2019s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he\u2019d never get a minute\u2019s peace and he\u2019s right about that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always respected and appreciated that in him, and I\u2019ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,\u201d she added. \u201cHe said, \u2018I didn\u2019t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.\u2019 And we do and we have.\u201d<\/p>\n Fame and fortune may have afforded them the ability to travel anywhere, but they kept their vacations simple.<\/p>\n \u201cWe like to get out in our little RV and just be simple,\u201d Parton told\u00a0PEOPLE in 2015. \u201cI love to read, I love to cook, I love to be with my husband. I put on my little comfy clothes \u2013 I call them my baby clothes \u2013 and we just relax.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Their RV adventures don\u2019t last long. \u201cHe loves to go on vacation or on little trips, but he doesn\u2019t want to be gone a long time,\u201d she says. \u201cHe wants to be mostly around the house. He knows I\u2019m just the opposite. I can\u2019t go enough places. I can\u2019t do enough things. He loves that. He\u2019s independent. He doesn\u2019t need me in his face, and it\u2019s the same with me.<\/p>\n One of Parton\u2019s biggest hits\u00a0was written with Dean on the brain.<\/p>\n \u201cShe got this terrible crush on my husband,\u201d Parton told\u00a0NPR\u00a0in 2008 about a flirtatious woman.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us \u2014 when I was saying, \u2018Hell, you\u2019re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don\u2019t believe we\u2019ve got that kind of money.\u2019 So it\u2019s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWords can\u2019t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,\u201d Parton wrote about her husband of 58 years Carl Dean and Dolly Parton in an undated photo. Photo:courtesy Dolly Parton Dolly Parton\u2019s husband\u00a0Carl Dean has died…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/htd.sofamoci.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/NBEmyyJ1h1wh0RpO5AThiefvcCg=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(491x340:493x342):format(webp)\/Dolly-Parton-husband-CarlDean-120524-01-4ebce7a405a94a7baf9271fc62cacc2e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/LvW8GXMHRIocfzco_P2zFHb46qQ=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(449x0:451x2):format(webp)\/dolly-parton-carl-dean-2-14b56f86c9d44b02ae907f0ac8154a2e.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/people.com\/thmb\/EVucKR6wBye6DpytchR5-4H5kP0=\/4000x0\/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(490x0:492x2)\/dolly-parton-carl-dean-5-c30eea6493ba40489650f9b53f850733.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.tuko.co.ke\/images\/1120\/ad5d3161a9710206.jpeg?v=1\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/image3.affcoder.com\/storage\/images\/1741058553wVeJmXEhJmxGTzNl6ukM.png\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"