On Tuesday, the world lost one of its brightest stars: Dolly Parton.
The country music legend died at age 80 after a ‘brief battle’ with cancer.
Dolly left behind millions of adoring fans and a monumental legacy that spans music, business, and philanthropy.
Over the course of her six-decade career, it’s estimated she donated around $500 million to various charities — if not more.
Since her passing, more and more anecdotes about the ‘9 to 5’ singer have emerged, from her offering up her own body to medical researchers in her final days to her unlikely love for Rotherham, in South Yorkshire.
The latest story is just as heartwarming. It reveals the name Dolly and her late husband, Carl Dean, would have chosen for a baby girl if they ever had children: Carla.
Speaking with The Guardian in 2014, she reflected on their marriage.
Dolly said at the time: ‘You always wonder. My husband and I, when we first got married, we thought about if we had kids, what would they look like? Would they be tall — because he’s tall? Or would they be little squats like me?’
Dolly continued: ‘If we’d had a girl, she was gonna be called Carla,’ adding: ‘Anyway, we talked about it, and we dreamed it, but it wasn’t meant to be.’
Reflecting on this, Dolly told the outlet that she ‘would have been a great mother.’
However, that would have probably meant she’d ‘have given up everything else.’
‘Because I would’ve felt guilty about that, if I’d have left them [to work, to tour]. Everything would have changed. I probably wouldn’t have been a star.’
Dolly met Carl — who died last year at the age of 82 — outside a Laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964, on her very first day in the city.
Having just arrived at 18-years-old with dreams of becoming a musician, both quickly became smitten with one another.
The couple dated for two years before eloping and marrying on May 30, 1966. They remained married for almost 60 years until Carl’s passing in 2025.
