Dolly Parton is an icon in country music as well as America's darling. Parton is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian. The country music star is also a well-known rags to riches story. She was the fourth out of twelve children raised in the mountains of Tennessee who made her way to celebrity stardom.

Parton's also part of a small-but-insanely-talented group of artists who have been nominated at least once for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony (known as the EGOT). She was also given the Living Legendary Award from the U.S. Library of Congress. Dolly Parton's 2019 Netflix documentary called "Here I Am" shares her musical life journey and introduces viewers to the many people who have helped shape her career, including her mysterious spouse, who's known for being extremely private.

Who is Dolly Parton's husband, Carl Dean?

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Carl Thomas Dean was born on July 20, 1942, in Nashville, Tennessee, making him a Cancer. Dean is a notoriously private person and very little is known about him or the long-time relationship between him and his wife, Dolly Parton have.

She's never brought him on tour with her or into the spotlight and rarely even  talks about him, “He doesn’t particularly care about being around anybody but me. He’s just always asked me to leave him out of all this. He does not like all the hullabaloo,” Parton has said of her camera-shy spouse. 

What does Carl Dean do for a living?

He is a businessman by trade. In 1977 he opened his own asphalt-laying company in Nashville. The company is still running today, 40 years later.  Now retired, Dean spends most of his time at the couple's house in Nashville and taking RV trips with his wife. 

What is Carl Dean's net worth?

Carl Dean's net worth is roughly $20 million.

How did Dolly Parton and Carl Dean meet?

The two met outside of a laundry mat in 1964. Parton said in an interview, "I graduated on a Friday night, went to Nashville on a Saturday morning with dirty clothes and I went to a Laundromat looking for anything but love."

Dean, on Dolly, revealed that, "My first thought was 'I'm gonna marry that girl. My second thought was, 'Lord she's good-lookin.'" Although love wasn't something Parton was actively looking for, she felt connected to Carl and invited him to visit her at her aunt's house. The next week Dean visited Parton every day until he took her to meet his parents for their first real date. 

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When did Dolly Parton and Carl Dean get married?

The couple got married on May 30, 1966, two years after they met at the local laundry mat. They got married at a small baptist church in Ringgold, Georgia. Parton was 20 and Dean was 23. The wedding was very small — only Parton's mother, the church preacher, and the preacher's wife were in attendance. The young couple decided to elope because Parton's record label thought that if Parton was married her chances of being famous would go down the drain. Obviously, that didn't happen.

However, Parton said she couldn't stomach getting married in a courthouse, so that's how they ended up at the Ringgold Church. "I can't get married in a courthouse because I'll never feel married. So we found a little Baptist church in town, and went up to Pastor Don Duvall and said, 'Would you marry us?'" Parton said of their nuptials. The couple have been married for 54 years as of May 2020. 

What is Dolly Parton's age?

Dolly Parton is still singing it up at the age of 74. She was born on January 19, 1946, in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, making her a Capricorn.

Does Dolly Parton have children?

The couple had no children of their own but they did help raise many of Dolly's younger siblings along with her nieces and nephews. Dolly is also the godmother of singer Miley Cyrus. It's a wholesome sentiment that even though the couple never had kids of their own, they had such big hearts to help out the ones close to them.

Dolly said in an interview, "God has a plan for everything. I think it probably was his plan for me not to have kids so everybody's kids could be mine. And they are now."

What is Dolly Parton's net worth?

Dolly Parton's net worth is $600 million as of April 2020. 

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Deauna Nunes is a writer who covers pop-culture, self, and love topics.