Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, died at the age of 82

Carl Dean, the longtime husband of the country icon, Dolly Parton, died on Monday at the age of 82.

Dean, who has been known private throughout her almost 60-year marriage to Parton, died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a statement she published on social media.

“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words cannot make justice of love that we have shared for more than 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” the message said.

The 9-5 singer met Dean in front of a washing machine on the first day when he arrived in Nashville as an 18-year-old ambitious singer.

Parton recalled their first date, saying, “I was surprised and delighted that as he spoke to me, he looked at my face (rarely to me). He seemed to be really interested in finding out who I was and what I was doing. “

Two years later, on May 30, 1966, the pair exchanged vows at a private ceremony in Ringold, Georgia.

Throughout his marriage, Dean has remained out of the eye of the public, instead choosing to focus on his asphalt-a-pointed business in Nashville.

Although it remained largely out of the spotlight, Dean continued to influence Parton’s work, the most inspiring his classic hit “Jolen”.

She told us to the media in 2008 that the song was for a bank cashier who developed a Dean crush.

“She received this terrible love of my husband,” Parton said. “And he just liked to go to the bank, because she paid so much attention to him. It was somehow as a joke between us – when I said,” Hell, you spend a lot of time in the bank. I do not believe we have such money. “So this is a really innocent song everywhere, but it sounds terrible.”

Parton and Dean’s relationship remained such a mystery that rumors began that he did not exist – but Parton was joking about it.

“Many people say that there is no Carl Dean, that he is just someone I have invented to keep other people from me,” she told the 1984 Associated Press.

Parton and Dean had no children together.

He survived his siblings, Sandra and Donnie, said in Parton’s statement.