Dolly Parton shocked her fans on Monday with the announcement that her husband of almost 60 years old, Carl Dean, had died at the age of 82.
In contrast to the bubbles 79-year-old land legend, Dean was a more withdrawn figure who shunned the Tour life and was rarely seen in public or without a parton.
Dean was last depicted in public on photos that took a little more than five years ago.
The photos were taken in 2019, when he was seen to a post office in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Before that, Dean was not consciously photographed in public in four decades, although he and Dolly both had made travel together under the radar.
For his outing 2019, Dean – who was then 77 – was accompanied by an assistant who drove him to the post office.
Dolly Parton's deceased husband Carl Dean is depicted in one of the last public photos of him from 2019, five years before his death on Monday at 82
Parton announced her husband's death with a heartbreaking statement on Instagram after almost 60 years of marriage
Dean was casually dressed in a black and white gingham button-up shirt and dark jeans, along with a checked brown hunting jacket.
Although his rough hair was considerably grayer than in his heyday, he still seemed remarkably similar to how he appeared on photos that were taken with his wife decades earlier.
Dolly shared the gloomy news on Monday 3 March – only a few weeks shy for her 59th wedding anniversary – that her husband Carl died at the age of 82.
In her heartbreaking tribute, Dolly thought about the 'many beautiful years' that the couple spent together.
'Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words cannot do justice to the love that we have shared for more than 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy, “Dolly wrote.
In addition to his old woman, Dean is survived by his brothers and sisters, Sandra and Donnie.
Parton's statement indicated that her deceased husband would be laid to rest in a private ceremony that was only attended by their immediate family.
In 2015, Dolly told people that part of the secret to their lasting love was that she and Carl were pleasantly different from each other.
Dolly shared the gloomy news on Monday 3 March – only a few weeks shy for her 59th wedding anniversary – that her husband Carl had died on an 82 -year -old
In an Instagram declaration, the legendary singer revealed that Carl died on Monday 3 March in Nashville, while thinking about the 'many beautiful years' that the couple spent together
“They say that oppositions attract, and it's true,” she explained. 'We are completely opposite, but that makes it fun. I never know what he will say or do. He always surprises me. '
She later sheds more light on why her husband avoided the spotlights, in which he 'never wanted to be', in an episode of 2023 of what Dolly would do? Radio on Apple Music.
'He went to one thing early with me, when we first got married, with a BMI song of the year [event]And he got away there and took off his tuxedo, his draw and all and said, “Never ask me to go to one of these damn things because I don't go.” I never asked him and he never did that, “she remembered.
The singer said earlier that Dean spent most of his time on their estate in the suburb of Brentwood, near Nashville.
However, he could probably come and go as he wanted, because he had no famous face, unlike his superstar woman.
Despite the enormous success of Dolly – and the life of luxury it took care of them – the two never had children.
While he spoke with Saga Magazine in 2023, the artist sheds some light why they and Carl held their families as a duo.
“If you are a young couple, you think you will have children, but it was just not one of those things burning for me,” she explained. “I had my career and my music and I was traveling. If I had had children, I would have stayed with them at home. I know for sure and I am worried about them. '
In 2023, Dolly revealed that her famous withdrawn husband told her that he no longer wanted to attend public events after a bad time at a BMI Song of the Year event that they attend shortly after getting married in 1966
They never had children. Although Dolly said they were not against children and had chosen names in case there was no priority for one of them
Later she felt justified by her decision, because she would “hate to bring a child to this world” because of “everything that is going on.”
In 2014, however, she told Billboard that she and Carl were not against having children and admitted that they would even have chosen names if they finally had.
In the same year she told people: “I often think it was just not meant to have children, so that everyone's children can be mine.”
In 1977 she also told the publication that she would not have children for her cover story if it meant 'Leaving[ing] They for someone else to raise while I have a career. '
For the first time, the 9 to 5 singer met her future husband in a place that would not be the most as a hotbed of romance – the laundry.
But both Dolly and Carl described the fatal meeting in 1964 as a love at first sight in later interviews.
“I would come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told the New York Times. 'I was in such a hurry to get here – and after I put my clothes in the machine, I started walking through the street, just watching my new house, and this guy screamed at me and I waved. Bein 'from the country, I spoke to everyone.'
Dolly said she felt that the mysterious man who approached her would become an important figure in her life.
It was love at first sight when Dolly and Carl met in a laundry in 1964. He introduced in 1966, and they married on May 30 of that year
“He came by and well, it was Carl, my husband,” she explained.
The two started to date shortly thereafter and Carl presented Dolly about two years later, in 1966.
Although she was in the clouds, the singer later remembered that her manager thought she was engaged and was then married at the time, could harm her career at that early stage.
She decided against a large wedding because of his warning, but she and Carl were still determined to get married, so they chose to make the knot with only the pastor of Ringgold Baptist Church in Ringgold, Georgia, agreeing.
The only witnesses of the withheld ceremony on May 30, 1966 were the wife of the pastor and the mother of Dolly, Avie Lee Owens, she told Local 3 News in Tennessee in 2012.
“I bought a small dress, Mama had bought a Bible, some flowers on it. We grabbed Mama and went back and married on a Monday in a church, “she said.
The marriages were so small that Dolly and Carl didn't even have time to celebrate, because she said they both had to go back to work the next day.
