Dolly Parton and Carl Dean‘s love story is one for the ages.
The pair were married for nearly six decades, tying the knot in 1966. In a statement Monday, Parton announced that Dean died March 3 at the age of 82.
Throughout the years, Dolly has often sung the praises of her husband and their relationship.
She opened up about how she met Dean outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18 while speaking to Robin Roberts in 2019.
“There was a laundromat down from my little apartment where I was gonna be staying. So, the very day I go down to the laundromat, this good-looking man just drives by and he says something like, ‘Well, you’re gonna get sunburned out here.’ And I said something stupid like, ‘Well, what’s it to you?’ We start talking and, two years later, we married and we’re still married, and that was that.”
Though he stayed out of the spotlight, Carl shared his first impression of Dolly in a rare statement in 2016 — the year they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and renewed their vows.
“My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl.’ My second thought was, ‘Lord, she’s good lookin’,”” he told Entertainment Tonight. “And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”
Dolly shared how the two kept their decadeslong marriage alive in a People interview in 2020.
“We still have our little times, like in the springtime when the first yellow daffodils come out. Even if there’s still some snow around it, my husband always brings me a bouquet. And he’ll usually write me a little poem,” she said. “Which to me, that’s priceless. That’s like a date in itself.”
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