In Nashville, Tennessee, in 1964, Dolly and Carl Dean met in front of the Wishy Washy Laundromat. Dolly was 18 years old and Carl was 21 years old at the time. Carl noticed something special about the young woman right away.
When they first met, Dean remarked, “I’m going to marry that girl,” according to an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“Lord she’s beautiful, was my second thought. And that marked the start of my existence. In this world, I wouldn’t exchange the past 50 years for anything.”
In a 1976 interview with the New York Times, Dolly recalled that Dean “holled” at her when he was sitting in his pickup truck when he saw her. She, however, turned down his offer of a date. Instead, a few days later when she was watching her nephew, she invited him over. It was the beginning of a love story that would last forever.
Dolly and Carl exchanged vows in a secret ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia, in May 1966. Her record company advised them to postpone their nuptials because she had a job to consider. But Dean and Dolly didn’t want to wait, so they made the decision to get married in Georgia rather than Tennessee so that no one would write about it there. Dolly, Carl, and her mother were the only people present.
Dolly and Carl have been profoundly in love ever since. The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2016. They chose to renew their vows as a way to celebrate.
They will now spend considerably more time together.
Parton elaborated on her traveling experiences in her interview with Pollstar:
“I’ve been doing that throughout my life, and it takes a lot of time and effort. With my husband, I prefer to stay a little closer to home. I don’t want to go away for four or five weeks at a time because we are getting older. Something might occur. If I were gone and someone needed me, I wouldn’t feel great about that. Or I would feel horrible if I had to end a tour early because someone at home needed me and I couldn’t leave the fans behind.”
The singer asserts that her most recent musical works will also fall under the rock n’ roll category for her husband. Actually, this past May, Parton received a nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Well, no better time to do it,” I reasoned when I learned that I had been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’d wanted to do it forever. For years I’ve thought, “One of these days I’d like to do an album basically just for him, just to kind of do it,” because my husband is a huge hard rock ‘n’ roll lover.
The singer is apparently working on a Christmas special for NBC this year while she continues to finish her new album. As she clarified:
Have fun, Dolly! You have been very generous to us! Just unwind and take it all in right now! We’ll cherish you forever.
