Yesterday (March 3), Carl Dean, Dolly Parton‘s husband of nearly 59 years, passed away at the age of 82. While Dean did his best to stay out of the public eye, many fans of Parton felt the reverberations of her loss and sadness. Those fans didn’t need to be familiar with the man’s life to know that he and the “Coat of Many Colors” singer shared a long and beautiful love story.
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Many of Parton’s fans and admirers know that she and Dean had been together for decades. However, they may not realize that the couple met the day Parton moved to Nashville. She left East Tennessee for Music City to follow her dream of being a star and build a new life. As it turns out, she found a lifelong partner almost immediately. Watch Parton recall how their love story began in the video below.
[RELATED: Dolly Parton’s Husband, Carl Dean, Dead at 82]
Dolly Parton Remembers Meeting Her Husband Carl Dean
Dolly Parton recalled that she met Carl Dean that she met Carl Dean the first day she was in Nashville in 1964. “I just took up with a strange man, that’s all,” she joked. “My daddy didn’t want me to leave home for that very reason. He knew I’d do that,” she said before adding, “I’m only kidding.”
However, her recollection of their first meeting was no joke. “It’s true that I met my husband on the first day. I took dirty clothes from home because I was in such a hurry to go. So, I went to the laundromat. It was the first time I had been to a laundromat,” she recalled. “I put my clothes in the washing machine and I got a cold drink and I was just walking along the sidewalks, just kind of looking around Nashville,” she added.
“This good lookin’ guy went by in a Chevrolet. And me, being straight from the country, you speak to everybody. If you don’t, you’re stuck up. You’re just an ol’ stick in the mud if you don’t speak,” she explained. “He said, ‘Hello there, you’re gonna get sunburned.’ And I said, ‘Alright, thanks! How’re you doing?’ He made a circle and came back around,” she added.
Dean then joined Parton in the laundromat while she finished washing her clothes. “We met at the wishy and in all honesty, it’s been wishy washy ever since,” she joked.
Featured Image by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
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