Carl Dean, Dolly Parton’s husband, has been nearly 60 years old, died at the age of 82

Carl Dean, an asphalt paver, met his future wife, Dolly Parton, who quietly supported her as she rose to superstar more than sixty years ago in Nashville’s laundry and died Monday. He is 82 years old.

Ms. Parton announced his death in a statement shared on social media. No reason.

“Carl and I spent many years together,” Ms. Parton said. “Word cannot deliver justice to our love that has been shared for more than 60 years.”

Although his wife is a world-renowned star, Mr. Dean is a private man who keeps a low profile. Ms. Parton said in an interview with Entertainment in 2020 that her husband never wanted to be the spotlight.

“It’s not who he is,” Ms. Parton said. “He’s like a quiet, reserved guy, and he wonders if he’s ever been there and he’ll never get a minute of peace, and he’s right about that.”

According to Ms. Parton’s website, Mr. Dean was born in Virginia Bates Dean and is known as Ginny and Edgar Henry Dean. When Ms. Parton became a country star, he pursued a quiet life with an asphalt paving business.

According to Ms. Parton’s website, the couple met outside the Wishywashy laundry on the day she moved to Nashville in 1964, when Ms. Parton was 18 and Mr. Dean was 21. Two years later, in 1966, married on Memorial Day in Ringgold, Georgia, only Ms. Parton’s mother, a missionary and his wife attended.

Ms. Parton and Mr. Dean have lived on a farm outside Nashville for decades.

In an interview with National Public Radio in 2008, she revealed that Ms. Parton’s 1973 hit song “Joline” was inspired by a bank teller who became interested in her husband early in her marriage.

Mr. Dean rarely goes into the spotlight, so that at some point there are rumors that the two are not actually married, and Ms. Parton always eliminates it.

“They think I just made up for him,” Ms. Parton once said in a 2024 TV interview.

A complete announcement will be followed.