Dolly Parton’s husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, died on Monday at the age of 82.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” Parton shared in a statement on social media. “Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”
“The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time,” the statement ended.
According to AP News, Dolly was just 18 when she first met Dean outside Nashville’s Wishy Washy Laundromat. “I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” she said about their first encounter. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Parton revealed in a 1976 interview with the New York Times that she initially wouldn’t go on a date with him, but Dean showed up at her home every day for a week where they spent time together on the porch.
“I wouldn’t go out with him. I mean, that was somethin’ we was taught,” she explained. “You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you. But I said, ‘You’re welcome to come up to the house tomorrow because I’m baby‐sittin’ my little nephew.'”
“He came up every day that week and we set out on the porch,” she added. “I wouldn’t even take him in the house. Then my aunt got a day off, and she could keep the kid 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 that’s the one he wanted.”
The couple tied the knot on Memorial Day in 1966 after being together for two years.
Dean and Dolly celebrated their golden anniversary in 2016 by renewing their vows in the city where their love story began.
“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,'” Dean shared about his initial reaction to seeing Dolly, according to Entertainment Tonight. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
