Dolly Parton’s six-decade love story with Carl Dean began at a laundromat

Dolly Parton lived much of her life in the spotlight, but her greatest love story unfolded almost entirely away from it.

The country music legend, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80 after a "brief battle with cancer," was married for almost 60 years to her late husband Carl Dean.

Parton's death comes less than 18 months after she lost Dean, who died in March 2025 at age 82.

While announcing her passing, her nephew Bryan Seaver shared their family's belief that she had been reunited with the man she called the "star of my life story." TRUMP MOURNS DOLLY PARTON, ORDERS US FLAGS LOWERED NATIONWIDE AFTER COUNTRY MUSIC ICON DIES "Dolly has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed to meet her in the heavens," Seaver said.

Despite being married to the internationally famous singer, Dean was a very private man who steered clear of the limelight and was rarely seen in public.

The couple's romance began with a chance meeting on Parton's first day in Nashville in 1964.

At the time, Parton was 18 and Dean was 21.

Parton, who hailed from rural East Tennessee, previously shared she had been so eager to leave home that she arrived in Nashville with dirty clothes and went to the Wishy Washy Laundromat.

While her clothes were in the wash, she bought a cold drink and walked around looking at her new city.

Dean drove past in a Chevrolet and warned her that she was going to get sunburned.

Parton, who said she greeted everyone because she was "straight from the country," answered him.

He soon circled back and joined her at the laundromat.

"I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face, a rare thing for me," Parton recalled in a 2016 post on her official website.

"He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about." During his lifetime, Dean rarely gave interviews.