Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, were married for nearly 60 years, and died within a year and a half of each other.
While the country music legend had been in the spotlight since the ‘50s, her relationship with the businessman mostly remained out of the limelight.
Parton, a star on the stage, television and film, died on Aug. 25, 2026, at the age of 80. Her nephew Bryan Seaver confirmed her passing in a video message shared on her Instagram page. He did not mention a cause of death.
The news of her death came about a year after Parton had to postpone multiple concerts as a she faced “health challenges.”
Her death also followed the loss of her beloved husband, who died on March 3, 2025, at the age of 82.
She penned a sweet statement at the time reflecting on their decades of marriage.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” she wrote on her Instagram, alongside the announcement of his death.
Dean, who was from Nashville, was a businessman without any industry ties. In a 2023 interview for “What Would Dolly Do? Radio,” the singer gave insight into her long-standing private relationship.
“Carl has never been in the limelight and all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it,” said Parton.
She shared that after one public outing, he knew that life wasn’t for him.
“He went to one thing with me early on when we first married to a BMI Song of the Year (event), and he came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going,’” she said. “I never asked him and he never did.”
But despite their different approaches to public life, the two had a lasting relationship, celebrating 58 years of marriage before his death.
Here’s a look back at the major events in their relationship, from their first meeting at a laundromat to his support for her music.
Many people can live in a city for years before going on a date, but Parton met her husband on her very first day in Nashville. She told the New York Times that she brought a lot of dirty clothes with her, and stopped at the “Wishy-Washy” laundromat.
“After I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just looking at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved,” Parton told the New York Times in 1976. “Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”
