The great Dolly Parton, perhaps America’s last universally beloved public figure, lost her husband of almost 60 years this week. Carl Dean was an asphalt paver from Tennessee who met Parton outside the Wishy Washy laundromat in Nashville in 1964 when she was 18 and he was 21. He died on Monday, at 82.
If you hadn’t heard of Dean, neither has anyone else.
Famous only for his rejection of the spotlight, Dean continued to run his asphalt-paving business as his wife became the most well-known country music star in the world. He refused interviews, avoided awards shows, and was so reclusive that people began to speculate that Parton had made him up. He gave only one interview that I could find, and it was just a few lines summarizing his first meeting with Parton. “My first thought was, I'm gonna marry that girl, ” he said. “My second thought was, Lord she’s good-lookin’. And that was the day my life began. I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth.”