A fan shared a moving story about Dolly Parton’s late husband Carl Thomas Dean following his death at age 82.
Earlier this week, the Jolene singer announced that her famously reclusive husband of 59 years passed away on March 3 in Nashville in a statement on Instagram.
And on Thursday Parton, 79, took to social media to express her gratitude for the support she has received and opened up about how she is navigating the grieving process.
Since the news of Carl’s passing, fans have offered their condolensces – and one in particular offered a tear-jerking story about Dean in the comment section of her post announcing his death.
‘Carl Dean was such a kind man,’ they began. ‘My father was an accountant at a dealership where Mr. Dean would come from time to time for a truck.
‘My dad was always handicapped, but eventually he was confined to a wheelchair. Mr. Dean remembered him & insisted on seeing him just to see how he was doing.’
A fan shared a moving story about Dolly Parton’s, 79, late husband Carl Thomas Dean following his death at age 82
Since the news of Carl’s passing, fans have offered their condolensces – and one in particular offered a tear-jerking story about Dean in the comment section of her post announcing his death
The social media user continued, ‘He came by every tome from then on…not to conduct business but to visit for a few minutes.
‘He was a rare individual & I wanted you to know his kindness is remembered. I know you will miss him so much. My deepest condolences.’
The Grammy award-winning singer tied the knot with Carl in 1966 during a ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia. During the course of their decades-long marriage, the pair did not welcome any children.
This week, Dolly shared a statement to Instagram to reveal the news of her husband’s passing.
It read: ‘Carl Dean, husband of Dolly Parton, passed away March 3rd in Nashville at the age of 82. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. He was survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie.’
A quote from Parton was also included and she expressed, ‘”Carl and I spent many wonderful years together.
‘Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”‘
The message concluded with, ‘The family has asked for privacy during this difficult time.’
The Grammy award-winning singer tied the knot with Carl in 1966 during a ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia
This week, Dolly shared a statement to Instagram to reveal the news of her husband’s passing
A quote from Parton was also included and she expressed, ‘”Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. ‘Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy”‘; seen in January in Nashville
On Thursday, Dolly gave an update as she navigates through her grief and penned a short ‘love note’ to ‘family, friends, and fans.’
She penned, ‘Thank you for all of the messages, cards, and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl.
‘I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me. He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you. – Dolly.’
Last year, Dolly gave a rare glimpse into her marriage as she revealed the reason why her husband refused to attend events with her.
Speaking on an episode of Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde Podcast, the star revealed that while her husband ‘loves’ music, he’s ‘not the least bit interested in being in it.’
Recalling a pivotal moment early in their marriage, Dolly revealed she once convinced Carl to attend an awards show in 1967 when she won BMI Song of the Year.
Despite the big win, ‘homebody’ Carl told her: ‘I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ And, she added, he never did.
But throughout their decades together, the couple, who renewed their vows in 2016 at their Nashville home, have relied on their shared sense of humor to avoid conflict.
And on Thursday, Dolly gave an update as she navigates through her grief and penned a short ‘love note’ to ‘family, friends, and fans’
Speaking on an episode of Bunnie Xo’s Dumb Blonde Podcast, the star revealed that while her husband ‘loves’ music, he’s ‘not the least bit interested in being in it’
Speaking fondly of her ‘hilarious’ husband, the singer – who is the godmother of singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus – revealed ‘He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny…we have a lot of fun.’
She added: ‘Anytime [there is] too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far,’ she explained. ‘We never fought back and forth.’
In 2008, Parton told NPR that her 1973 hit Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who used to flirt with her husband.
‘She got this terrible crush on my husband. And 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,”‘ Dolly shared.
Years later, she told a crowd at the Glastonbury Festival of the song: ‘I wrote that years ago when my husband… was spending a little more time with Jolene than I thought he should be. I put a stop to that. I got rid of that redhead woman in a hurry.’
The couple first met at a laundromat in Nashville in 1964, when she was just 18 years old, and throughout the dizzy heights of fame, Carl has remained a constant and supportive figure for Dolly behind the scenes.
In 2023, she spoke about how they first met in her Channel 5 documentary, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words.
‘When I first moved to Nashville in 1964 I was doing dirty laundry because I was in such a hurry to move to Nashville from my home in East Tennessee which was 200 miles away.’
In 2008, Parton told NPR that her 1973 hit Jolene was partly inspired by a local bank teller who used to flirt with her husband; seen in 2022 in NYC
‘I’d never been in a laundromat before. I walked outside there was this good looking man that drove by the wishy-washy laundromat. And he pulled over to the side. So we started talking and we married two years later.’
While Dolly’s fame grew, Carl, who once ran a road-paving business, remained out of the spotlight, content to support his wife from behind the scenes.
And despite his reluctance to join her in the public eye, Dolly has always made an effort to keep their romance alive.
In 2022, she revealed in an interview with E! News that she always dresses up for her husband.
‘Every day, I put on some makeup and fix my hair because I think, “Well, the whole world, I’m out here and everybody else sees me all dressed up, and I’m not going to just kind of go home and just flop on him,”” she said.
‘Nobody wants to make out with a slouch! It’s important to me that I look as good as I can. I think it kind of helps keep things spicy.’
In her 2017 book Dolly on Dolly, Interviews and Encounters with Dolly Parton, the star revealed that ‘men are my weakness.’
She said: ‘Men are my weakness. Short, fat, bald or skinny – I’ve had crushes on some very unusual men but Carl knows I’ll always come home and I’m not having sex with these people – I’m just flirting and having fun.
‘He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too. Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that.’
She added, ‘He would shoot me too. At the end of the day we love each other madly.’
While Dolly has joked that Carl has only seen her perform once, she told Entertainment Tonight about a sweet conversation she had with her husband.
In 2022, she revealed in an interview with E! News that she always dresses up for her husband
‘He’s not jealous and I’m not jealous of him. He knows I flirt. He flirts too. Yes, it’s an open relationship, but not sexually and I would kill him if I thought he was doing that,’ she added
‘He said, “I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.” And we do and we have.’
In 2011 Dolly told the Toronto Sun: ‘We’re really very proud of our marriage. It’s the first for both of us. And the last.’
While the pair have never had children, the musician insisted she has ‘not missed’ having children.
She admitted her career would have been put on the back-burner if she’d started a family and that little ones was not a ‘burning’ desire for her.
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