Dolly Parton’s Husband, Carl Thomas Dean, Passes Away at 82 – Heartbroken Dolly Shares: “I Tried to Stop Him, But He Looked at Me and…”.Viet

The couple wed in 1966 but Dean avoided the spotlight

Carl Thomas Dean, Dolly Parton’s ultra-private husband, has died at the age of 82.

Dean married the country legend in 1966 but eschewed the spotlight. He never attended public events with his wife, and the singer shared only a handful of photos of him over the years.

Parton shared the news of her longtime spouse’s death via Instagram on Monday, March 3.

“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 is survived by his siblings Sandra and Donnie,” the post read.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice t the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” Parton’s post continued. “The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”

Dean was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 1942. He was one of three children born to Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean. Parton shared in her 1994 book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business that Dean was close to his grandmother Minnie Bates,

Not much is known of his life before he met Parton in 1964 outside a laundromat. She was 18 and was staying with her Uncle Bill, having just moved to Nashville to pursue her music career.

“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told The New York Times in 1976. “I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”

She continued, “I wouldn’t go out with him. I mean, that was somethin’ we was taught. You gotta know somebody or they may take you on a back road and kill you. But I said, ‘You’re welcome to come up to the house tomorrow because I’m babysittin’ my little nephew.’ ” Dean came over every day that week, and the first time they went out together, he took her to meet his parents.

Dolly Parton (left) and Carl Thomas Dean. Dolly Parton Instagram

“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’ ” Dean told Entertainment Tonight in 2016 in a rare public statement. “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.”

“I hadn’t intended to marry,” she told the Times. “I hadn’t intended to find anybody, but you know how love goes. And he understood that I had to do what I had come to Nashville to do.”