Dolly Parton grateful for prayers and support following husband’s passing

Parton met her husband back in 1964 in a laundromat in Nashville when she had first moved into town, she was 18 and he was 21.

“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton said of their first meeting.

“He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”

It was love at first sight for the pair who dated for two years before tying the knot.

During a previous appearance on the Dumb Blonde podcast, Parton revealed the key to their long-lasting marriage.

“He’s quiet and I’m loud, and we’re funny. Oh, he’s hilarious. And I think one of the things that’s made it last so long through the years is that we love each other and we respect each other, but we have a lot of fun,” she said.

“Anytime there’s too much tension going on, either one of us can like, find a joke about it to really break the tension, where we don’t let it go so far.

“We never fought back and forth. And I’m glad now that we never did, because once you start that, that becomes a lifetime thing.

“I’ve seen it with so many people, and I thought, ‘I ain’t ever starting that.’ I couldn’t bear to think that he’d say something I couldn’t take … because I’m a very sensitive person toward other people and myself.”

While the couple enjoyed a happy union, Parton and Dean rarely appeared together in public. Parton explained the reason for this in a recent episode of her Apple Music Show, What Would Dolly Do?

“Carl has never been in the limelight at all, never wanted to be in it. He don’t like it. He went to one thing with me early on, when we first married, to a BMI Song of the Year [event],” she explained at the time.

She admitted that his experience at the event wasn’t a positive one.

“He came out there taking off his tuxedo, his tie and all that and said, ‘Don’t ever ask me to go to another one of these damn things because I ain’t going.’ I never asked him and he never did,” she said.

Despite his reluctance to turn up at major events, Dean’s support of his wife was unwavering.

“He’s always been supportive,” she said.

“He’s like a brother and a father and a friend and a husband and a lover – all of those things to me.

“I think he’s kind of proud that we’ve been in it this long.”

Dean is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.

-with BANG and AP.