Carl Dean, the longtime husband of country music legend Dolly Parton, died Monday at the age of 82.
Dean, who was famously quiet during his nearly 60-year marriage to Parton, died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a statement she shared on social media.
“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,” the statement read.
The “9-5” singer met Dean outside a laundry on her first day in Nashville as an aspiring musician at the age of 18.
Parton recalled their initial meeting, stating, “I was shocked and happy that he glanced at my face (which is unusual for me). He appeared to be really interested in discovering who I was and what I was about.”
Two years later, on May 30, 1966, the pair exchanged vows in a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.
Dean kept out of the public glare throughout their marriage, instead focusing on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville.
Despite his absence from the spotlight, Dean continued to influence Parton’s music, most notably influencing her famous single “Jolene.”
She told US media in 2008 that the song was about a bank teller who had a crush on Dean.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kind of 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 it sounds like a dreadful one.”
Parton and Dean’s connection was so mysterious that rumors circulated that he did not exist—something Parton laughed about.
“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 said to the Associated Press in 1984.
Parton and Carl Dean had no children together. However, he is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie, Parton’s statement said.
