Dolly Parton

The queen still showing up like she always does.

In an interview with Knox News during the recent 40th grand opening of Dollywood over the weekend, in addition to talking with the crowd at the show and also participating in the Dollywood parade, Dolly Parton did quite a bit of media. She seemed to be in good spirits all things considered, and she had her signature Dolly humor on display when talking with the crowd during a Q&A session at one point during her very busy day.

It was all less than two weeks after her husband of almost 60 years, Carl Dean, passed away in Nashville at the age of 82, but Dolly still showed up at her theme park in Sevierville, Tennessee, at Dollywood, marking her first public appearance since she lost the love of her life.

She opened up to the paper about the loss of her husband, saying she was “doing better than I thought I would,” and seeing as they’ve been together for 60 years, there’s going to be a huge learning curve to adjusting without the love of her life:

“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. I need to laugh. I need some fun, so I’m probably gonna be stupid. I’ve been crying enough the last week or two… I’m at peace that he’s at peace, but that don’t keep me from missing him and loving him.”

She explained that her husband had “suffered a great deal,” and though she has a “hole in her heart,” he will always be with her in spirit:

“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. 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. Everybody thinks that’s the funniest thing.”

We don’t know much about Dean because he was so private, but he would actually visit Dollywood on occasion, though obviously no one knew who he was and he’d indulge in some of the food, like funnel cake, but like his wife, he wasn’t a big fan of the roller coasters. Instead, he walked around admiring the popular theme park. But he’d always come back with a few suggestions, which I found particularly funny:

“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. 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, but he would notice things and he would say, you might want to bring this to their attention.”

I mean, it’s a pretty smart strategy to go in there as a “normal” person and then have direct contact with the boss to help make improvements. Dolly said that if she could, she’d probably do Dollywood exactly like Carl, and take it all in (but neither of them love roller coasters, so that was out of the question):

“I think I would do like Carl. I would just walk around, look at everything.”

They had a once-in-a-lifetime love, and the famous story goes that Dolly and Carl met outside of the Wishy Washy laundromat in Nashville in 1964, the same day that Dolly moved to Music City. They dated for two years, and decided they wanted to get married. And actually, at the time of their wedding, Dolly’s newfound record label didn’t want her to get married at all. They thought it might tarnish her image, and as we all know, Dolly did what she wanted anyways… so she and Carl Dean secretly ran off to Ringgold, Georgia, along with Parton’s mom Avie Lee as a witness, and headed for the local courthouse.

The rest, as they say, is history, and he’s been by her side for decades, and while we never saw him in-person, he was a guiding light and rock in the life of an incredible woman who accomplished everything and more. I can’t imagine how sad the must be deep down, but it looks, and sounds, like she’s doing relatively okay, which is great to hear.

Dolly recently released a beautiful tribute to her late husband called “If You Hadn’t Been There,” which you should definitely check out below.