Photo: Getty Images
Dolly Parton said she’s “doing better than I thought I would,” weeks after losing her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean. But “that don’t keep me from missing him and loving him.”
Parton, 79, spoke about her late husband in an interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel when she appeared at a recent event for season pass holders at Dollywood, her amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Parton told the outlet, “I’m doing better than I thought I would. I’ve been with him 60 years. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll always keep him close. …I’m at peace that he’s at peace, but that don’t keep me from missing him and loving him.”
Parton said when she addressed the audience at the Dollywood event, marking the park’s 40th anniversary season, that she wanted “to take a minute to thank all of you for all the flowers and cards, and the well wishes for the loss of Carl. You know how I loved him. And he would want me to be working today. I expect to be working. So anyway, I just wanted you to know, that of course, I will always love him and I’ll miss him. But I wanted you to know that I will always love you.”
Dean died on Monday, March 3 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 82. Parton and Dean met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat on her first day living in Nashville when she moved from her East Tennessee home. Parton previously shared that she wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time, but she “fell in love with Carl Dean when I was 18 years old,” and the rest is history. They got married in Georgia wedding on May 30, 1966. Parton said when she introduced a new song in her late husband’s honor, “like all great love stories, they never end. They live on in memory and song. He will always be the star of my life story, and I dedicate this song to him.”