Carl Dean, Dolly Parton's devoted husband of nearly 60 years who avoided the spotlight and inspired her timeless hit "Jolene," died Monday. He was 82. According to a statement provided to the AP by Parton's publicist, Dean died in Nashville, Tennessee. He will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending. "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," Parton wrote in a statement. The family has asked for respect and privacy. No cause of death was announced.
Parton met Dean outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville at 18. "I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me)," Parton described the meeting. "He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about." They married two years later, on Memorial Day—May 30, 1966—in a small ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia. Dean is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.
Parton told NPR in 2008 that she wrote the iconic "Jolene" about a flirty a bank teller who seemed to take an interest in Dean. "She got this terrible crush on my husband," she said. "And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us—when I was saying, 'Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money.' So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one." (When she turned 75, she gave her husband a very public, and slightly risqué gift.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
