Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean was last seen on a rare outing in Tennessee five years before his death: ‘For the past five years he has been struggling with the pain of a strange illness and said if I died I would… see more

“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 said in a statement shared on Instagram on Monday.

In addition to Parton, Dean is survived by two siblings, Sandra and Donnie. A private ceremony for immediate family will be held.

Parton and Dean met outside a Nashville laundromat when she was 18. They wed in 1966. His interactions with a flirtatious bank teller were the inspiration for Parton’s hit song “Jolene.”

Despite his decades-long marriage to Parton, Dean remained mostly out of the spotlight. He was rarely photographed and almost never spoke to the media. His reticence led some fans to speculate that he might not exist at all.

“A lot of people have thought that through the years, because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all,” Parton said in a 2020 interview with Entertainment Tonight. “It’s just not who he is. He’s like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he’d never get a minute’s peace and he’s right about that.”

“I’ve always respected and appreciated that in him and I’ve always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can,” she added. “He said, ‘I didn’t choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.’ And we do and we have.”