Dolly Parton's husband, Carl Dean, has passed away at the age of 79. The country music legend confirmed his death in a statement on her website, revealing he died on Monday in Nashville. "Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years," Parton said. "Thank you for your prayers and sympathy."
Dean, who was famously private and rarely seen in public with Parton, was the inspiration behind Parton’s hit song "Jolene." The song was written after a bank clerk developed a crush on him, which Parton found amusing and turned into a song. "She got this terrible crush on my husband," Parton recalled in a 2008 interview. "It was kinda like a running joke between us."
Parton met Dean when she was 18, outside a launderette in Nashville. Despite being told by her record company to wait, the couple married in a secret ceremony in May 1966, with only a few close witnesses. Dean, who ran a paving business, preferred to stay out of the limelight, which contributed to rumors that he didn’t exist. Parton humorously addressed these in a 1984 interview, saying, "A lot of people say there's no Carl Dean, that he's just somebody I made up to keep other people off me."
Dean is survived by his brother and sister. The couple, who never had children, shared a life of love and privacy for more than six decades.