Dolly Parton shares how belief in God helps her deal with husband's death

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Dolly Parton is leaning on her deep religious faith following the death of her husband, Carl Dean, in March at the age of 82.

In an interview with the Associated Press, the 79-year-old country music icon spoke about how her belief in God has helped her deal with the loss of her husband of almost 60 years.

“I am a person of faith, and I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday,” the 11-time Grammy winner said. “I really feel his presence.”

“And I see him every day in my memories and in my heart and in all the things that we used to do and all the things that we’ve built together,” she explained. “You just kind of have to learn to kind of make new plans, but that’s the hardest part.”

The exact cause of Dean’s death has not been revealed, but Parton said her longtime partner had been “ill for quite a while.”

“I just try to go on because I know I have to. And he was ill for quite a while, and part of me was at peace that he was at peace and not suffering anymore. But that still doesn’t make up for the loss and the loneliness of it,” Parton said.

But Parton said that her future plans remained unchanged after her loss telling the AP that Dean was always her biggest cheerleader.

“I’ve always had dreams and I’m always working. My husband understood that. Carl knew that better than anybody and he was all about it. He was very proud of me,” she said. “So when I did lose him, I just thought, well, I’m going to take all of that energy, and I’m just going to put that back into other things, and I’ll keep him ever-present in everything that I do.”

Parton confirmed Dean’s death in a social media post on March 3.

“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 wrote in a statement shared to X and Instagram.

Following the news, Parton dedicated her new track, If You Hadn’t Been There, to Dean. She announced the song in an Instagram post, which included a throwback photo of Dean giving Parton a piggyback ride.

“I fell in love with Carl Dean when I was 18 years old. We have spent 60 precious and meaningful years together. Like all great love stories, they never end,” she wrote. “They live on in memory and song. He will always be the star of my life story, and I dedicate this song to him.”

According to the Associated Press, Dean owned an asphalt-paving business in Nashville.

The two — who never had children — met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat the day she moved to Nashville as an aspiring singer when she was 18 years old.

“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton, 79, said of their first meeting in 1964, recounted in a post on her website to celebrate the couple’s 50th anniversary. “He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”

“I’d come to Nashville with dirty clothes,” she told The New York Times in 1976. “I was in such a hurry to get here. And after I’d put my clothes in the machine, I started walkin’ down the street, just lookin’ at my new home, and this guy hollered at me, and I waved. Bein’ from the country, I spoke to everybody. And he came over and, well, it was Carl, my husband.”

The pair were married in 1966 and Dean famously eschewed the spotlight. He rarely attended public events, telling his wife that he preferred to maintain his privacy.

However, despite his reluctance to be seen in public, Parton told Knox News in 2024. that Dean was instrumental to her success as a musical artist.

“There’s always that safety, that security, that strength,” she said of their relationship. “He’s a good man, and we’ve had a good life and he’s been a good husband.”

Dean rarely gave interviews, but when the couple celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary in 2016 he opened up to Entertainment Tonight about their first meeting.

“My first thought was, ‘I’m gonna marry that girl.’ My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’ And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth,” he said.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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