A day after leaving her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee to move to Nashville in 1964, Dolly Parton only had music on her mind. Then, the 18-year-old singer and songwriter bumped into a 21-year-old Carl Thomas Dean, on her way to a laundromat in Nashville.
“I met him the first day I got to Nashville, in 1964,” recalled Parton in an interview with Andy Warhol and Mary Moynihan for Interview magazine in 1984. “I graduated on a Friday night, went to Nashville on a Saturday morning with dirty clothes and I went to a Laundromat looking for anything but love. I had just left two boyfriends back home and I wasn’t looking to get involved because I had gone to Nashville to really get started in the business.”
Parton continued, “I met him at the Why Washy and he’s been wishy-washy ever since. We dated for two years before we got married. I often get myself in love trouble because I’m so passionate; I love so much and so deep. But Carl’s a special guy, I didn’t have any problems with him.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Meeting the Aunt and Uncle
Though enamored by his 6-foot-2 stature and tanned skin from working outdoors in the asphalt business with his father, Parton didn’t instantly go off with Dean. There was more courting involved. “You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you,” she said in Stephen Miller’s 2011 book Smart Blonde.
The next day, she invited Dean to meet her “Uncle Bill” Owens and his wife Sandy, who also moved to Nashville with her. At first, Parton would only sit with him outside and talk.
“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” recalled Parton of their first meeting. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”
Dean returned every day for an entire week. Then, he took her out for their first day, to his parent’s house. “He said he knew right from the minute he saw me,” recalled Parton, “that that’s the one he wanted.”
“My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’” recalled Dean in 2016. “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.”
[RELATED: 3 Songs You Didn’t Know Dolly Parton Wrote With Her Uncle Bill Owens]
Dolly Parton Dean
The two wanted to get married but Parton’s boss Fred Foster at Combine Music warned her that getting married would be bad for her image since she was just on the verge of breaking out. With only her mother Avie Lee Parton —who also took the wedding photos—at her side, Parton still went ahead with her wedding.
In 1966, the two were married on May 30 during a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia. Though Parton kept her stage name as “Dolly Parton,” her passport read “Dolly Parton Dean” and she often signed important documents with her full name.
Foster once said to Parton, “Now aren’t you glad you didn’t get married?” since he didn’t know she was married until a year later. Parton kept her stage name the same during this time which kept her marriage under wraps. “Anyway, if I had chosen the name Dolly Dean,” joked Parton in 2014. “I’d have been Double D Again.”
Quiet Life
Throughout their marriage, Dean kept a mostly low profile, keeping their relationship as private as possible, and continued working for his asphalt paving business in Nashville. Early on, rumors began to swirl as to whether Dean was real or a figment of Parton’s imagination.
“A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean,” Parton told the Associated Press in 1984, “that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me.”
In 1966, Parton tried to bring Dean to a BMI awards ceremony, where she and her uncle Bill were being honored for their song “Put It Off Until Tomorrow.” After the event, Dean pulled off the tuxedo she had rented for him. “He said, ‘I’m happy for you,’” recalled Parton. “‘I want you to do what you want to do. But don’t ever ask me to go to another one of them damn things, because I ain’t going.’ And he never has.”
Parton explained why Dean preferred to stay out of the public eye. “He does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” said Parton in 2020. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”
She added, “I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him, and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can. 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.”
“Jolene”
Parton famously wrote two of her biggest hits, both No. 1s, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene” on the same day, but it was the latter song that was inspired by a bank teller, who developed a crush on her husband in the late ’60s.
Parton wasn’t slow to write about the situation, which wasn’t as serious as the song sounds—And I can easily understand / How you could easily take my man / But you don’t know what he means to me, Jolene.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “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.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
Life on the Farm
Overall, Dean was a “loner” according to Parton, and liked life on their farm. In a 2024 interview, Parton revealed that her husband has enjoyed living on the farm since retiring from his Asphalt business. “I think I’ve talked pretty much about everything through the years with Carl, and we’re different people,” Parton said. “But we just work so well together.”
She added, “He’s kind of a loner so he doesn’t really like being with anybody but me when I’m home. I mean, he’s not one to kind of get out there and socialize that much. He loves living on the farm, taking care of the property as he has for all these many years, and then, we just have a lot to talk about.”
Parton admitted that she wasn’t much different once she was off the road or out of the studio. “I love to read, I love to cook, I love to be with my husband,” said Parton. “I put on my little comfy clothes—I call them my baby clothes—and we just relax.”
RV Dates, Taco Bell, and ‘Playboy’
The couple often enjoyed taking adventures in an RV, including road trips to Ringgold, Georgia, where they said “I do,” and to the Taco Bell drive-thru during date nights.
“I love hanging out with my husband, riding around in our little RV,” she said in 2014. “Even when I get off the road after traveling thousands of miles, I’ll say, ‘Get the camper; let’s go somewhere.’ He’ll say, ‘Are you kidding? Ain’t you tired of riding?’ ‘No, I’m a gypsy. I want to do that.’ My life is fairly simple when I’m out of the limelight.”
Their marriage was always a fun one even after nearly 60 years. In 2021, Parton surprised Dean with a calendar recreating her 1978 Playboy photo shoot. At the time, Parton became the first country singer to appear on the cover of the magazine.
“Remember sometime back, I said I was going to pose on the cover of ‘Playboy Magazine’ when I was 75?” Parton posted in a video message on Instagram.”Well, I’m 75 and they don’t have a magazine anymore. But my husband always loved the original cover of ‘Playboy,’ so I was trying to think of something to do to make him happy. He still thinks I’m a hot chick after 57 years, and I’m not gonna try to talk him out of that.”
Another 50 Years
Years earlier, Parton also convinced Dean to have a big party around their 50th anniversary, where they also renewed their vows. He agreed since Parton wanted to sell the photos to help raise money for charity.
For the big event, Parton wore a dress designed by her longtime costume designer Steve Summers, and she and Dean spent their second honeymoon in their camper by the lake, in Ringgold, Georgia. “If I had it to do all over, I’d do it all over again, and we did,” said Dolly in a press release. “I’m dragging him kicking and screaming into the next 50 years.”
Parton said the event inspired her 45th album Pure and Simple. “I thought, ‘Well I’m going to write about mine and Carl’s relationship,” she said. “It’s just a pure and simple relationship,’ so it started with that and then I thought, ‘Well why don’t I just write a whole album of love songs?’”
Happily Ever After
The secret to their nearly 60-year marriage, according to Parton, came down to one thing: respect. “We have a lot of love and respect for each other, and I think the key to all of it,” she said in 2023. “We both have a crazy, warped sense of humor, so we have a lot of fun.”
After more than 60 years together and nearly six decades married, Dean died on March 3, 2025, at age 82.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together,” said Parton following her husband’s death. “Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years.”
Throughout their decades together, Parton always expressed her deep love and respect for Dean. “God has been good to me,” she said in 2014. “He gave me Carl Dean. And that was the perfect man that I needed.”
Photo: DollyParton.com
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.