Dolly Parton has died, and her nephew Brian Seaver has confirmed she is now reunited with her husband Carl Dean, who passed away last year. The couple had been married for nearly 60 years.
A Love That Never Dimmed
Associate Editor Tom Bryant, who interviewed the country legend several times, recalled the sparkle in her eyes whenever she spoke about Carl. "Come springtime in Tennessee, we have buttercups coming up around the side of the barn and last week he brought me a little mason jar full of them and wrote me a little poem," she told him a few years ago.
Bryant noted that Carl's death last year left her totally bereft. They were more in love than ever after nearly six decades of marriage.
Reunited in Faith
Announcing her death today, Brian Seaver said: "Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl." A deeply religious woman who got up at 3am every morning to pray, she took great comfort in the fact that Carl was waiting for her.
A friend told Bryant: "Amid all the heartache and upset that she has gone, we are all comforted by the fact she is with Carl again."
A Love Story That Began at 18
The pair met outside Nashville's Wishy-Washy laundromat when she was just 18. Carl, 21, struck up conversation by saying she was going to get sunburn in her revealing outfit.
"My first thought was, 'I'm going to marry that girl,'" Carl once said. "My second was, 'Lord she's good lookin'.'" They began dating and Dolly signed with Monument Records soon after. Two years after they first met, they tied the knot in a low-key ceremony in Georgia in 1966.
Fame never sat easily on Carl's shoulders. Despite being the subject of red-headed bank clerk Jolene's advances in Dolly's famous 1973 song, he quietly lived on their sprawling farm running his paving firm until he retired recently.
Despite being linked to other men - including Burt Reynolds - she often told Bryant how Carl was never concerned, and even found it vaguely amusing. "Sometimes he goes to the grocery store and he sees a magazine with some story about me and he'll get it and bring it home and say, 'I see you're having Burt Reynolds's baby again'," she told him once as she roared with laughter. Bryant said he will never forget her love for him... or that laugh.
