• Carl Thomas Dean is the husband of widely popular singer Dolly Parton
• He is a retired businessman and is believed to be worth millions of dollars
• There is very limited information about his early life and childhood
• He met Dolly Parton at a Laundromat and they married in 1966
• They have been married for 50 years and are very close to Parton's nieces and nephews
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Who is Carl Thomas Dean?
Carl Thomas Dean was born on 20 July 1942, in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and is a retired businessman, but probably better best known for being the husband of widely popular singer Dolly Parton. His wife is well-known for her work in country music, while also contributing to a wide range of disciplines over the course of her career.
The Wealth of Carl Thomas Dean
How rich is Carl Thomas Dean? As of mid-2019, authoritative sources estimate that he is relatively wealthy in his own right, certainly in the millions of dollars, but he and Dolly Parton prefer to share a net worth estimated to be over $500 million. The couple are enjoying their large nest egg even in his retirement.
Early Life, Education, and Career
There is very limited information about Carl Thomas’ life, as he is one of the most private persons connected by marriage to a renowned singer. There are no details especially about his life before he met Dolly, with no information about his childhood, education, and family available. By the time he had met Parton, he was already gaining success as a businessman. According to interviews done by his wife, he ran an asphalt road-paving business in Nashville, and did so for most of his professional life.
Asphalt is a semi solid form of petroleum which is often used for road construction as a binder or glue to help create asphalt concrete. Even after their relationship and marriage, he has shunned publicity, and very rarely accompanies his wife to events. He’s only seen his wife performing once, as he is apparently nervous on her behalf, but even then, their relationship stays very strong as he provides a lot of support behind the scenes, and is reputedly quite romantic, that doesn’t need to be seen publicly.
Wife – Dolly Parton
Dolly started her career as a songwriter, mainly working in the background for other artists; she is also a multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Thanks to her, many artists of her time achieved success in their respective careers, such as Bill Phillips, Skeeter Davis and Kitty Wells. With the encouragement of others, she signed with a record label as a recording artist, leading to her debut album in 1967 entitled “Hello, I’m Dolly”. Over the course of a decade, she achieved steady success as a solo artist, and in a duo alongside Porter Wagoner.
Throughout the 1970s up to the 1990s, her albums and songs charted well, though started to swing lower during the 1990s. In 1999, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, having composed over 3,000 songs including “Jolene”, “I Will Always Love You”, and “9 to 5”. She also tried her hand at an acting career, starring in films such as “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination. Other acting projects she worked on during this period include “Straight Talk”, “Steel Magnolias”, “9 to 5”, “Joyful Noise”, and “Rhinestone”.
Dolly’s Success and Recent Endeavors
Parton is one of the few people to have received at least one nomination for an Academy Award, Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award. She has 25 Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum songs – 25 of the songs she’s been involved in have reached the top spot of the Billboard country music charts, a record she shares alongside Reba McEntire. She also has 41 career top 10 country albums, which is the record. She has won nine Grammy Awards, 10 Country Music Association Awards, seven Academy of Country Music Awards, and three American Music Awards. Only Dolly and six other female artists have won the Entertainer of the Year Award given by the Country Music Association.
When someone shows you their true colors, believe them ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zHztAnVHPe
— Dolly Parton (@DollyParton) September 10, 2019
In the 2000s, her career experienced a resurgence, as she achieved commercial success with the release of albums through various independent labels. She even started her own label called Dolly Records, marking her foray into the business world. In 2016, she was honored with the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. She now also collaborates frequently with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus. She is continuing her acting and production endeavors. Aside from which, she also does a lot of philanthropic work, raising money for victims of calamities.
Personal Life
For his personal life, it is known that Dean met Dolly Parton when she was 18 years old after she had produced her first single for a small record label in Louisiana. The two met at a Laundromat where she was working part-time to help make ends meet. He drove by with a white Chevy pickup truck, stopping to tell her about how she might get sunburnt due to her slightly revealing outfit. According to her, she was the first man she met at the time to look her directly in the eyes, and so was impressed by his genuineness and authenticity. The two started a relationship and after two years, married in 1966 in a private ceremony held at Ringgold, Georgia.
Dolly Parton adopted her husband’s last name, but rarely uses it, with Dean only stated in her passport though she sometimes uses it when signing contracts. He is very romantic despite the privacy, often doing spontaneous things to surprise her, even writing poems. The two celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2016, renewing their vows. The two raised a lot of Parton’s younger siblings, and are also very close to her nieces and nephews.
