Some time ago, while promoting her tome celebrating her unique sense of style, Dolly Parton was inquisitively asked if her long-time spouse, Carl Dean, had a particular fondness for any of her attire. Her face lit up with a nostalgic smile as she reminisced. "Back in the day when hot pants were all the rage—what feels like an eternity ago—I owned a pair of captivating red velvet hot pants," she reminisced during a 2023 interview with CNN. "Carl absolutely adored those pants, and he'd frequently query, 'Where are your red velvet hot pants?' Hence, for many years, I donned them solely at his request," she revealed with a chuckle.
On Monday, the heartbreaking news broke that Dean, her beloved husband for nearly six decades, had passed away at the age of 82. Dean was partly renowned for his inclination to steer clear of the public limelight. Despite being married to one of the world's most iconic stars, he steadfastly remained an enigma within his wife's celebrity sphere.
In a 2016 interview with People magazine, Parton described her husband as a "recluse," emphasizing, "He's content only in my company. He's always begged me to exclude him from all this fanfare. The hustle and bustle are just not his cup of tea."
A year prior, she shared with Parade magazine that she had "tied the knot with a genuinely wonderful man, someone who couldn't be more different from me." "He's not in showbiz and doesn't harbor any resentment towards it. He adores hearing about my endeavors," she explained. "I equally cherish listening to his tales. We thoroughly enjoy each other's companionship and have a fantastic rapport. He possesses a wonderful sense of humor. We've been the best of friends and buddies, and it's plain to see that our unique bond has stood the test of time!"
Parton first crossed paths with Dean in Nashville in 1964 while visiting her uncle and aunt who had recently relocated there. She recalled in a 1976 New York Times article how Dean, noticing her en route to the laundromat with soiled clothes due to her swift travels, called out to her, to which she politely responded. "Being country-bred, I engage with everyone," Parton reminisced. "He approached me, and that was Carl, my future husband."
Parton recounted how she initially declined Dean's invitation for an outing, preferring instead to invite him to join her on the porch of her aunt and uncle's home. "He visited every day that week, and we'd sit out on the porch together. I wouldn't even let him inside the house," she shared. "Then, my aunt had a day off... and that marked my first opportunity to go somewhere with Carl. He drove me straight to his parents' house and introduced me to his mom and dad. He said he knew from the moment he laid eyes on me that I was the one he wanted."
The couple tied the knot in 1966 and renewed their vows in celebration of their golden jubilee in 2016. That very year, Dean granted a rare interview to "Entertainment Tonight," revealing, "My immediate thought was, 'I'm going to marry that girl.' My next thought was, 'Lord, she's stunningly beautiful.' That day marked the beginning of my life. I wouldn't trade these past 50 years for anything in this world."
Parton has also extolled her husband as her perfect counterpart, telling Us Weekly in 2022, "We make the ideal pair." She elaborated, "We both possess a great sense of humor, enabling us to solve any problem or navigate any situation with humor, preventing it from becoming too burdensome. Yet, we respect and adore each other. Let's just say we were incredibly fortunate."
Dean, however, was notoriously private. "This has led many to believe that my husband doesn't exist and that I invented him," Parton penned in her 2020 memoir, "Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics." The couple never had children, a fact that Parton, one of twelve siblings, told Billboard she had no regrets about. "I used to think I should feel regret. Early in our courtship and marriage, we assumed we'd have kids. We weren't taking any precautions," she confided. "In fact, we even had names picked out, but it didn't happen. Now, I say, 'God destined me to be a mother to everyone else's kids.'"
"I'm incredibly close to my family – five of my younger siblings lived with Carl and me for years – and we're very dear to our nieces and nephews," she continued. "Now that Carl and I are older, we often remark, 'Aren't you glad we didn't have kids? Now, we don't have to worry about them.'"
