Dolly Parton is sending a message of gratitude to her fans and loved ones following the death of husband Carl Dean on March. 3. The country music legend, 79, took to Instagram three days after Dean’s passing to share a heartfelt message about her husband of nearly 60 years.
“This is a love note to family, friends, and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl,” Parton wrote on Thursday, March 6. “I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me.”
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“He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you,” she concluded with a reference to her 1973 song “I Will Always Love You.”
Dean died on March 3 in Nashville and is survived by siblings Sandra and Donnie, a statement shared to Parton’s Instagram announced earlier this week. “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. “The family asks for privacy during this difficult time.”
Dean, who was born in Nashville in 1942, first met Parton at a laundromat in town — and it was love at first sight. “My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl,’” he recalled in a rare public statement to Entertainment Tonight in 2016. “My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good lookin.’”
That was the day Dean said his “life began,” and the two would go on to marry in 1996. Despite Parton’s fame as a global superstar, Dean has always stayed far away from the spotlight, supporting his wife privately. “He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it,” Parton told PEOPLE in 2019. “He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes, but he’s at home.”
Parton was equally devoted to her husband, telling the magazine in 1982, “Carl is the one man in my life. I would love to grow old with him. If he should die first, I may never marry again. My love is that deep.”
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