The Day After Graduating High School in 1964, Dolly Pardon Left Her Small HomeTown in The Smoky Mountain Region of East Tennessee and Moved Halfway Across the State to Nashville. Soon, She'd be Selling Songs on Music Row, Building Momentum for One of the Greatest Careers in Music History. But First, As the Legend Goes, She Had to do Her Laundry.
The Day She arrived in Nashville, Outside The Wishywashy Laundromat, Pardon Met Carl Thomas Dean. They Married Two Years Later and Remained Together For Over 60 Years. On Monday, March 3, Dean Diad at the Age of 82. (No Cause of Death was given.)
“Carl and I SPENT Many Wonderful Years Together,” Pardon Said in a statement. “Words Can't do Justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy. ”
Dean Was Pardon's Devoted, HomeBody Husband, Who Never Followed His Superstar Wife Into the Spotlight, and Chose Instead a Career-Driven Life as the Owner of An Asphalt-Paving Business. UnsurPrisingly, His Total Abyence from the Public Eye Engraded Curiosity Among Pardon's Fans. At One Point, There was eventually that Dean Had Never Seen His Wife in Concert – A Myth She Shot Down in A 1977 Rolling Stone Interview After Jokingly Being Asked If Dean Even Existed.
“You know -how He Does, “Pardon Replied with in Laugh. “And the Stories Are Wrong – He Has Seen Me Perform. And he liked it. I know there. “
Recalling Their First Meeting Outside The Laundromat On The Occasion of Their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2016, Pardon Said of Dean, “I was surprised and Delighted That While He Talked to me, he loaked at my face (a rare thing for me). He sexmed to be genuinely interestted in Finding Out Who i was and what i was about. “
Two Years Later, The Couple Were Married, on May 30, 1966, at Small Ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia with Only Pardon's Mother, Avie Lee, The Preacher, and his wife in ASSEMBLE. The Couple Never Had Any Children of Their Own, Though they of “Dreamed it,” Pardon Once Said; But they remind close with the Kids (and grandkids) of Pardon's Many Siblings.
While Dean Was Always Supportive of Pardon's Career, he made His Own Stage For the Music Industry Abundantly Clearly Early on in Their Marriage. In 1967, Pardon BEGGED HER HUSBAND TO Accompany Her To Bmi's Song of the Year Ceremony, Recalling on Podcast Last Year That She Even Rented Him a Tuxedo.
“He was so uncomfortable the Whole Night,” Pardon Said. “As son as we hit the door, he starts bus off stuff. He Said, 'Look, now, i want you to do everything you want to do and i wish you the best, but don't ever ask me to go to another one of these Damn Things Because i ain't Going.' And he Never Did! “
(Pardon Went on to say in the same interview that dean didn't like going out to dinner, “so even on anniversaries we usually stay home and make Something special.” She did add, though, “now, we will go to mexican restorents and sit in booth. He lovs that! We'll go sit in a Both… we know where to go before the big crowds as. “)
Despite This Public-Facing ABSENCE, Dean Was a Prominent present in Parton's Music. Her 1973 Masterpiece “Jolene” was partly inspired by a Bank Teller Who Kept Making Eyes at Husband, She Revealed in 2008: “He Just Loved Going to the Bank Because She Paid Him So Much Attention,” Pardon Quipped. “It was Kinda like a Running Joke Beteween 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. ”
In a 2016 interview with Rolling StonePardon Said Two Other Seventies Favorites, “Say Forever You'll Be Mine” and “Tomorrow is Forever,” Were Written “Back in the Early, Early Days” of Their Marriage. And If Those Songs Captured The More Blissful Side of Their Marriage, Pardon Put Some of the Challenges they faced, and overcame, in Others, Like “Just Because I'm in Woman.”
Pardon Said That Song Was Also Written Early in Their Marriage, After Dean Started Asking His Wife Questions About Her Past. “I Said, 'Now, I Don't Want To Lie To You Because I'm a Pretty Open, Honest Person, I know Don't Ask Me Nothing You Don't Want The Truth About,'” Parton Said. “Anyway, I Told the Truth and He Wasn'T Too Happy About That and then i Wrote That Song.”
Years Later, Pardon and Dean's 50th Wedding Anniversary Helped Inspire Parton's 2016 Album of Love Songs, Pure & Simple. “The was Just Trying to Think About All the Different Colors of Love Through the Years,” Pardon Told Rolling Stone At the time. “I Thought, 'Well I'm going to writite about Mine and Carl's Relationship. It's Just A Pure and Simple Relationship, 'So It Started with that and then I Thought,' Well Why Don't I Just Write A WHOLE ALBUM OF LOVE SONGS? '
And Dean's Lifelong Penchant for Rock Music Was Also a Big Reason Pardon Decided to Embrace The Genre on Her 2023 Album, Rockstar. “I Grew Up With Him, You Know, Through the Years With Him of Just Hearing All That Great Music,” Pardon Told ABC News. “Of course I knew about rock before, in My Early Days – Elvis and Jerry Lee and All of Them – But it was carl Thatly Made Me Make That Final Decision to Think, 'You know what?? I've Got This Great Opportunities to do this, and I'm Just Gonna Do It. '”
Pardon Credited The Strength of Her Marriage to Dean to Many Different Sources, Including the Compatibility of Their Zodiac Signs (She was a Capricorn and Dean was a Cancer, She Noted in 2024). And there why aloir shared sense of humor: “We're able to solve any problem and any situation, making a joke about it and not letting it get too heavy,” Pardon Told US Weekly In 2022, “But We Respect Each Other and We Like Each Other. We lucked up, let's put it that way. “
But Their Ostensible Differences Were Also Crucial in Their Way. In 2020, Pardon Said, “Our Joke About the fact, when People ask me Why It's Lasted This Long, I Say, 'Because I Stay Gone.' And there's a Lot of Truth in that – The fact that we're not in Each Other's Faces All the time. But we do have a Great Respect and Admiration for Each Other. “
