The country superstar’s husband passed away.
Dolly Parton’s impressive vocals, over-the-top style, and unapologetic candor have made her one of the most recognizable figures in country music. But there’s one part of the singer’s vibrant life that she has always kept out of the spotlight: Her relationship with Carl Thomas Dean.
Dolly and Carl were married for 58 years, sharing a private but incredibly strong bond that stood the test of time. Though the famous couple has only been seen in public together a handful of times over the years, their love story was one for the ages. Carl passed away this week at the age of 82, leaving behind a legacy of quiet devotion as the man who captured Dolly’s heart for more than six decades.
How did Dolly and Carl meet?
The way their relationship began sounds like the opening lyrics of a country love song. Dolly, who was 18 at the time, had just moved to Nashville from Sevierville, Tennessee. She was standing outside of a laundromat in 1964 when Carl pulled up in his white pickup truck and the pair started chatting. Dolly was “surprised and delighted” when she felt an instant connection to her future husband.
“It’s not often that someone can say their life changed forever at a place called the Wishy Washy Washateria,” she told 60 Minutes. “I’d just graduated from high school. Left two boyfriends at home, had no intentions of finding a boyfriend. I just wanted to work on my music. I didn’t want no boys, no men, or anybody sidetracking me. So what do I do the very first day?”
Apparently, it was love at first sight for Carl, too.
“My first thought was I’m gonna marry that girl,” he revealed when they renewed their vows in 2016. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began.”
Despite Dolly’s colorful personality, her relationship with Carl was low-key since the beginning.
“When I met my husband, he wanted to take me out to dinner. He pulled up to the drive-in window and got our food at McDonald’s,” she told People about their early courtship. “We know a few little places we can go without being bothered. He only likes to go places where he can be comfortable!”
When did they get married?
After two years of unorthodox dinner dates, Dolly and Carl made their relationship official. They got married on May 30, 1966 in a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia when she was 20 and he was 23.
They were forced to secretly wed because Dolly’s record label, Monument, was afraid that a serious relationship would interfere with her music career. The only other people in attendance at the tiny Baptist church where they exchanged vows were Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee, and the preacher and his wife.
“We’d already sent out invitations and so I thought, ‘I ain’t waiting!'” Dolly said of their decision to elope. “I had a little white dress and little flowers, and my mom went with me.”
Today, Dolly’s wedding dress and Carl’s suit are on display at the Chasing Rainbows Museum in Dollywood.
Dolly and Carl prove that opposites attract.
Soon after they got married, Dolly’s country music career took off—and Carl wanted nothing to do with it.
When she was honored for one of her earliest award-winning songs, “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” Dolly brought her husband to the first (and last) industry event they ever attended together.
“Carl and I got dressed up, he was in a tux, and we drove to the dinner. We got out and walked up the red carpet and went inside and sat through dinner and the awards, and I went up and got my award,” Dolly recalled. “After the dinner. . . Carl turned to me and said, ‘Dolly, I want you to have everything you want, and I’m happy for you, but don’t you ever ask me to go to another one of them dang things again!'”
After that, Carl remained in the background while Dolly dominated the spotlight—but he was forever her number one fan.
“He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it,” she said at the premiere of her Netflix series, Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings. “He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes.”
Although Dolly and Carl’s personalities came across as an unlikely match, the country superstar has said that their differences are actually the secret to their long-lasting union.
“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,” Dolly told People in 2015. “He’s independent. He doesn’t need me in his face, and it’s the same with me. But when we’re together, we have enough things in common that it works.”
But what about Jolene?
In 1973, Dolly released her hit song “Jolene” which was so popular, it later became the title of her fourteenth studio album. The lyrics of the catchy tune—which describe a beautiful, young red-haired woman name Jolene—immediately sparked rumors of infidelity in Dolly and Carl’s marriage.
The singer herself did nothing to dispute these claims, even telling fans at concerts that she “put a stop” to Carl going to the bank where Jolene apparently worked. However, given Carl’s private nature and Dolly’s confidence in their relationship, a story of an affair seemed hard to believe.
In recent years, Dolly revealed an alternate inspiration for the famous song that’s much less scandalous. According to The Independent, Jolene is actually a little girl who Dolly met at one of her shows and promised to write a song about, because Jolene had “just about the prettiest name” she’d ever heard.
There’s no telling which story about Jolene is true—but during their 60 years together, it never seemed to matter.
Did Dolly and Carl think about having kids?
With such a strong marriage, people often wondered why Dolly and Carl never had children. The music icon says she “used to think” she should regret it—but now, she realizes that “God has a plan for everything.”
“Early on, when my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids. We weren’t doing anything to stop it. In fact, we thought maybe we would,” Dolly once told Billboard. “We even had names if we did, but it didn’t turn out that way. Now I say, ‘God didn’t mean for me to have kids so everybody’s kids could be mine.'”
Dolly’s shown her love for kids over the years by donating more than one million books to children through her Imagination Library. Now, at 79, the singer has no regrets about the way her life with Carl turned out.
“I’m very close to my family… and we’re very close to our nieces and nephews,” she explained. “Now that Carl and I are older, we often say, ‘Aren’t you glad we didn’t have kids? Now we don’t have kids to worry about.'”
So, what was their secret?
Dolly and Carl celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary in May 2024, and they said “if we had it to do all over, we’d do it all over again.”
“We get along great and we’ve just had a really good marriage,” Dolly told 60 Minutes. “He’s independent. So am I. He likes staying home. I like staying gone.”
In fact, that was Dolly’s biggest secret to a long-lasting relationship: “Stay gone!” 😂
Carl Dean’s passing comes after “many wonderful years together.”
On March 3, 2025, Dolly Parton shared the sad news that her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, had passed away at the age of 82. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” she wrote in a statement shared to Instagram. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
No cause of death was given, but Carl passed away in Nashville, the city where he and Dolly built their life together. Though he preferred to stay out of the public eye, his love and support for his wife never wavered. He remained her biggest fan for her entire career, proving that sometimes the greatest love stories unfold far from the spotlight.