A while back, when she was promoting her book about her distinct style, Dolly Parton was asked if her husband Carl Dean had a favorite outfit of hers.
I used to have a pair of a pair of red velvet hot pants back when hot pants were in style, she told CNN during the 2023 interview. I mean, a thousand years ago. He loved those pants and hed often say, Wheres your red velvet hot pants? And so I wore those for years just on request of course.
It was announced Monday that Dean, her husband of almost 60 years, had died. He was 82.
Dean was famous, in part, for his desire to stay out of the spotlight. Despite being married to one of the biggest stars in the world, he was not a part of his wifes celebrity world.
Parton told People in a 2016 interview that her husband was a loner.
He doesnt particularly care about being around anybody but me, she said. Hes just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo.
Hes not in show business. Hes not resentful of any of that. He loves to hear about the things I do, Parton said. I love to hear about the things he does. So we enjoy each others company. We get along good. Hes got a great sense of humor. Weve just been best buddies and best friends and, evidently, its working!
The singer met Dean in Nashville in 1964, when she was visiting her uncle and his wife who had just moved there.
Parton later recalled in a 1976 New York Times article that she was headed to the laundromat as she had traveled so quickly her clothes were dirty when Dean spotted her, hollered at her and she said hello.
Bein from the country, I spoke to everybody, Parton told the publication. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.
Parton said she initially refused to go out with Dean and instead invited him to come sit on the porch with her at her aunt and uncles house.
He came up every day that week and we set out on the porch. I wouldnt even take him in the house, she said. Then my aunt got a day off and that was my first chance to go anywhere with Carl and he drove me straight to his folks house and introduced me to his mother and daddy. Cause he said he knew right the minute he saw me that thats the one he wanted.
The pair married in 1966 and renewed their vows in honor of their 50th anniversary in 2016.
My first thought was Im gonna marry that girl, Dean said of that first meeting with Parton. My second thought was, Lord shes good lookin. And that was the day my life began. I wouldnt trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.
Parton also celebrated her husband being the yin to her yang, telling Us Weekly in 2022, Were the perfect partners.
We both have great sense of humor, she said. Were able to, like, solve any problems and any situation, making a joke about it and not letting it get too heavy, but we respect each other and we like each other. We lucked up, lets put it that way.
But he was so private.
That has led a lot of people to believe that my husband doesnt exist and that I made him up, Parton wrote in her 2020 memoir, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics,
I used to think I should regret it. Early on, when my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids. We werent doing anything to stop it, she said. In fact, we thought maybe we would. We even had names if we did, but it didnt turn out that way. Now I say, God didnt mean for me to have kids so everybodys kids could be mine.
Im very close to my family five of my younger brothers and sisters lived with me and Carl for many years and were very close to our nieces and nephews, she added. Now that Carl and I are older, we often say, Arent you glad we didnt have kids? Now we dont have kids to worry about.
