Dolly Parton’s Shy Husband Had a Jaw-Dropping Opening Line at His Surprise Party
Dolly Parton’s husband, Carl Dean, was married to her for nearly 60 years. In all that time, only a handful of photos of him have been made available to the public. Dean disliked having too much attention on him, and he avoided journalists. While he was private and reserved, Parton said his personality came out around those he knew. He once thanked a group of people at his party with a line that none of them expected.
Dolly Parton’s husband surprised partygoers with the way he thanked them
In 1979, reporter Laura Cunningham joined Parton as she toured. At one stop, Parton and her band threw a surprise party for him at their hotel. While Dean didn’t typically join them on the road, he spent time with them for his birthday.
“He never goes with us, but this week, he’s made a real exception,” said her bandleader, Gregg Perry, per the book Dolly on Dolly. “I guess ‘cause we’re here for an entire week, and also, ‘cause it’s his birthday.”
When Dean walked into the surprise party, he jokingly turned and acted as though there was a person behind him who was the real guest of honor. Eventually, though, he faced the guests and surprised people with the way he greeted them.
“[Well],” he told the gathered crowd, “I thank you from the bottom of mah crotch.”
Dolly Parton said her husband seemed shy to people who didn’t know him
Though the public might have thought of Dean as a recluse, Parton said he wasn’t that way with his friends.
“People who don’t know Carl would think that he’s shy and bashful,” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “That’s not really true. He loves to have a great time and was voted wittiest in his high school class. It’s just that he’s comfortable with his own surroundings, with people he knows.”
She said he was a funny, social, and supportive person to those in his inner circle.
“He’s the first one to the hospital, the funeral home, taking food to the bereaved, whatever,” she wrote. “He’s also readily available to give the bride away if some redneck father in the family is too embarrassed (or, if the truth were known, too afraid of crying in public). Carl looks great dressed up, and the bride never seems to mind the substitution.”
Those who witnessed them together said Dean was a good fit for Parton’s exuberant personality.
He supported her career even though he didn’t like the spotlight
Though Dean almost never accompanied Parton to industry events, she said he always supported her career. He knew how important it was to her and never asked her to slow down or step away.
“[I love] his honesty. His decency. His earthiness,” she told Playboy in 1978. “I like the way he loves me. His understanding of me and the things I do. The way he lets me be free. And lets me be me. He don’t try to choke me and demand anything from me.”
Though she described him as a homebody and herself as a person who loved to be out in the world, their relationship worked well.
