Carl Dean death: Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years dies aged 82

Dolly Parton's husband of nearly 60 years has died. Photo / Getty Images, @dollyparton

Revered country singer Dolly Parton is mourning the loss of her husband, Carl Dean, who died on Tuesday (NZT) in Nashville aged 82.

Dean, a retired asphalt paver, famously met Parton outside the Wishy-Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18, and the couple enjoyed nearly 60 years of marriage together.

The pair married on US Memorial Day — May 30, 1966, in an intimate ceremony in Georgia.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years,” Parton wrote in a statement posted to social media.

“Thank you for your prayers and sympathy”.

The statement said Dean would be laid to rest in a private ceremony for family and friends and asked for the public to respect the family’s privacy.

He is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie. The couple had no children together.

Parton told People in a 1977 interview that her husband was “sort of shy and quiet”, while also professing that their love for each other was “so sweet and good”.

The couple kept the ins and outs of their relationship relatively low-key over the years despite Parton’s high profile.

“I’ve known how to keep my husband private. It’s just natural to me to protect the things and the people I love and to protect my own privacy,” she told Today in 2022.

Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, in an undated photo. Photo / @dollyparton

But Dean was known to have had an influence on Parton’s music.

She told NPR in 2008 that she wrote her hit song, Jolene, about a flirtatious bank teller who seemed to have a “terrible crush” on her husband.

“He just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda 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 sounds like a dreadful one”.

She also said Dean helped inspire her 2023 album, Rockstar.