Dolly Parton on Grieving Her Husband: ‘I’m Going to See Him Again’

The couple was married for over 60 years

Andre Ellington,

AARP

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Published May 30, 2025

Dolly Parton posing for a photo in a black and red outfit

Andres Kudacki/AP Photo

Dolly Parton, 79, is opening up about navigating grief after the death of her husband, Carl Dean, 82, earlier this year.

“I am a person of faith, and I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday,” Parton told the Associated Press. “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. You just kind of have to learn to kind of make new plans, but that’s the hardest part.”

The Grammy award-winning country singer, songwriter, and businesswoman said Dean had been “ill for quite a while,” and part of her is “at peace because he’s at peace,” but “that still doesn’t make up for the loss and the loneliness of it.”

Dean passed away on March 3, 2025, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dealing with grief

The death of a loved one can cause a range of emotions, but there are practical steps a person can take to deal with the immediate loss. These steps include alerting friends, family and the loved one’s employer; making funeral, burial or cremation arrangements; and getting a legal pronouncement of death.

If you were the caregiver of a deceased loved one, you should familiarize yourself with rights and legal obligations, especially if the person had a will or trust. Also, to access any assets, veterans, Social Security benefits or insurance money, you must provide your loved one’s death certificate for verification purposes.

Grieving a loved one can be a complex process. For many, the pain from a loss can trigger prolonged grief disorder, which the American Psychiatric Association describes as “intense and persistent grief that causes problems and interferes with daily life.”

To deal with grief, a person should do things like share their feelings, listen to their body, seek solace in support groups, stay active and seek purpose.

A study of 13,000 people published in the journal Preventive Medicine in 2022 found that purpose — a sense of direction and goals in life — may be linked to better health and lower mortality.

Low-profile love story

Dean and Parton met at a Laundromat shortly after she moved to Nashville at 18. Two years later, they married on Memorial Day in 1966 in Georgia.

Known for avoiding the spotlight, Dean was a businessman who owned an asphalt-paving business. Their relationship was mostly kept private. Parton told the AP in 1984: “A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me.”

Although Dean kept a low profile, he inspired her musically. Parton’s 1973 classic country ballad, “Jolene,” was based on a bank teller who had eyes for Dean.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.”

Parton’s 2023 album, Rockstar, was the first rock album she released, and Dean was her muse for it.

“He’s a big rock and roller,” she told AP previously. The slow, emotional ballad “My Blue Tears,” written when Parton was with The Porter Wagoner Show in the late 1960s and early ’70s, was “one of my husband’s favorite songs that I ever wrote,” she stated. “I thought, Well, I better put one of Carl’s favorites of mine in here.”

Parton also covered a couple of his favorites on the temporary detour from country music: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” and Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”

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