Dolly Parton Reveals Husband Carl Went on Secret Undercover Spying Missions

Dolly Parton has been opening up about how she’s coping following the death of her beloved husband, Carl Thomas Dean, who passed away on March 3 at age 82. And she has been dishing on how he went on undercover spying missions to her theme park Dollywood.

Speaking to Knox News on Monday (March 17), the country legend said, “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 keep him always close.”

Parton and Dean married on May 30, 1966, and the only witnesses at the wedding were Parton’s mom, the pastor, and the pastor’s wife. Dean chose to live a private life out of the spotlight while his wife toured the world and became a global sensation.

“I’m at peace that he’s at peace, but that don’t keep me from missing him and loving him,” Parton told the outlet, sharing that Dean had “suffered a great deal” before his passing.

 

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She added, “It’s a hole in my heart, you know, but we’ll fill that up with good stuff, and he’ll still always be with me.”

The “9 to 5” hitmaker also shared how Dean would sometimes visit her Dollywood family amusement park alone. “He used to come to the park; he bought his own ticket – stood in line and got his ticket. He didn’t want somebody giving him a ticket ‘cause he was Dolly’s husband,” Parton shared. “Everybody thinks that’s the funniest thing.”

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Dean would never visit Dollywood at the same time as Parton as he liked to avoid the limelight, but she explained, “He’d come up to East Tennessee to see some of my family and people that he loved of my people. And so, he’d just think, ‘Well, I think I’ll go to Dollywood, check things out.'”

Parton said Dean would return with his thoughts on the park and suggestions for improvements. “He would say, ‘You need more bathrooms.’ Or he would say, ‘You need to tell them this or that. It’s crowded over in that area. You might want to tell them they ought to do this or that.’”

“He wasn’t coming to criticize,” she continued, “but he would notice things and he would say, ‘You might want to bring this to their attention.'”