Dolly Parton’s Husband Carl Dies at 82
By Movieguide® Staff
Legendary singer Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean died March 3. He was 82.
The singer announced the news on her Instagram page where she also asked for prayers during this time.
Carl famously stayed out of his wife’s spotlight.
“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told The New York Times in 1976. “I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
Parton said of her elusive husband: “There’s always that safety, that security, that strength.”
Parton attributed one of her all-time most popular songs, “Jolene,” to something that happened to Dean.
“If it happened,” she says, “I wrote a song about it.” The only way she could run out of songs was to stop living. This philosophy gave birth to one of the greatest country music—or any genre—hits of all time. It happened not long after her marriage to Carl Dean, an asphalt contractor. He went into a bank to ask for a loan for a paving machine. The red-headed bank clerk seemed, to Dolly, more than friendly.
“I told him, ‘I don’t believe this long-legged, beautiful girl is who you ought to be talking to about asphalt,’ ” and she might have warned him that if he kept it up, she would pave over his behind.
Parton has been a friend to Movieguide® for many years, and we are praying for her and their family during this time.
- Content: +1Share:
- Content: +4