Dolly Parton’s Sister Stella Speaks out After Brother-in-Law Carl Dean’s Death

Dolly Parton’s family is speaking out about the singer’s unimaginable loss. The country icon is mourning the loss of her husband of over 60 years, Carl Dean.  

He passed away at the age of 82. In a statement to The Associated Press by Parton’s publicist, Parton noted that Dean will be laid to rest in a private ceremony with immediate family attending.

Privacy has been requested. At this time, no cause of death has been provided. Parton’s sister, Stella, recently posted a tribute to X, formerly Twitter, about the family’s loss. “On behalf of my sister Dolly, our family and Carl’s family we appreciate your prayers at this time,” she wrote.

“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 said in her statement to the AP. They first met on the day the singer moved to Nashville when she was 18. They said “I Do” on Memorial Day, May 30, 1966 in a Georgia ceremony.

“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.”

Dean owned businesses in Nashville. He is survived by Parton and his two siblings, Sandra and Donnie.

Rarely speaking of their relationship publicly, the singer told The Associated Press in 1984 of their secrecy: “A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me,” joking that she’d like to pose with him for a magazine cover, “So that people could at least know that I’m not married to a wart or something.”

They did not have any children. Of their longtime union sans kids, Parton once said, “When my husband and I were dating, and then when we got married, we just assumed we would have kids,” she told Billboard in 2014. “We weren’t doing anything to stop it. In fact, we thought maybe we would. We even had names if we did, but it didn’t turn out that way.”