Dolly Parton met Carl Dean, her first and only husband, when she was 18, on the day she moved to Nashville, Tennessee. They were married two years later on 30 May 1966. His cause of death was not disclosed, but Parton told the after his death that he was “ill for quite a while, and part of me was at peace that he was at peace and not suffering anymore”.
Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” Parton said in a statement after his death. Through the years, Dean inspired much of Parton’s work, most famously “Jolene”, one of her biggest hits, when he became the subject of a flirtatious bank teller’s attention.
She regaled her audience at Glastonbury with the story behind the song in 2014, when she performed in the Legends Slot on the Pyramid Stage in one of the festival’s most memorable shows of all time. I want you folks to know, though, that something good can come from anything. Had it not been for that woman I would never have written ‘Jolene’, and I wouldn’t have made all that money, so thank you, Jolene.” Enjoy unlimited access to 100 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Fifty years after the song was first released, Parton reflected on how it had affected her relationship with Dean during an appearance on the BBC’s The One Show. More recently, pop megastar Beyoncé featured her take on the song on her Grammy-winning 2024 album, Cowboy Carter.
Parton praised Beyoncé’s lyrical changes, commenting: “Beyoncé is giving that girl some trouble and she deserves it.” In an interview with The Independent, Parton said that Dean also inspired her 2023 album Rockstar, as many of the songs she chose to cover were his favourites. Parton and Dean kept their relationship strictly private, prompting her to tell the in 1984 that people often doubted her husband’s existence. She added that he was a “romantic” who would occasionally write poems for her.
It’s the first for both of us. And the last,” Parton wrote in 2011. Parton will be laid to rest next to Dean in the mausoleum at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville, Tennessee.
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