Carl Dean, the longtime husband of superstar Dolly Parton, died Monday in Nashville at the age of 82.
Dean's death marks the end of a six-decade country music fairy-tale romance. The two met in the mid-1960s on the then-18-year-old Parton's first day in Nashville.
"Carl and I spent many wonderful years together," Parton said in a statement through her publicist. "Words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy."
The two married in 1966 and were inseparable throughout her star-studded crossover career while he remained largely in the shadows.
Dean was notorious for remaining invisible to the public eye while Parton pursued successfully careers in everything from Hollywood to owning her own theme park.
"It is important to have someone there in your corner and you know they'll love you for just who you are," Parton told E! in 2023.
"There's a great comfort in knowing that someone loves you exactly for who you are — because he fell in love with me before I became a star."
Legend had it that she created Carl as a cover story to ward off would-be suitors, she told the Associated Press in 1984.
"A lot of people say there's no Carl Dean, that he's just somebody I made up to keep other people off me," she joked.
No cause of death was announced but Parton's statement said Dean will be laid to rest at a private ceremony with family and friends.
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