Country music legend Dolly Parton will be buried alongside her husband of nearly 60 years, Carl Dean, at Woodlawn Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Nashville, Tennessee, following her death at age 80 on August 25 after a brief battle with cancer.
Parton's nephew Bryan Seaver, who served as the star's head of security for more than 20 years, confirmed the burial plans to TMZ following her passing. Parton was hospitalized days before her death, and will rest in the mausoleum where Dean was buried following his death on March 3, 2025, at the age of 82.
In an August 25 Instagram video announcing his aunt's death, Seaver reflected on her legacy. "Dolly also opened doors for generations of singers, songwriters, musicians and dreamers from every walk of life and across every continent," Seaver said. "By her example, we believed that anything was possible. She never saw a door she couldn't open, and the doors she opened made and changed history."
Seaver added that while sadness lies with those left behind, Parton has lived in the light and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents and countless others. Parton had previously announced Dean's passing in a statement on X, writing that words could not do justice to the love they shared for over 60 years after marrying in 1966.
Reflecting on their marriage in May 2024, Parton told E! News that their relationship worked because they pursued different interests. "It's worked for us because we both do different things and it's exciting when we are together," Parton said, adding that Dean loved music but was not in the industry, and that both shared a crazy, warped sense of humor.
Meeting on Nashville Street
The couple's romance began in 1964 when an 18-year-old Parton moved to Nashville right after graduating high school in her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, leaving two boyfriends behind. On her first day in the city, while walking to a laundromat, 22-year-old Dean drove past in a white Chevrolet and called out to her, telling her she was going to get sunburnt.
Dean, who ran an asphalt paving business with his father, stood 6-foot-2 and was bronzed from working outside, while Parton stood 5 feet tall. Recalling the meeting in her 2020 book, "Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics," Parton wrote that they fell for each other immediately. Though she refused to get into his car, noting in Stephen Miller's 2011 biography "Smart Blonde" that a stranger might take you on a back road, she invited him to visit her at her aunt and uncle's house, where he returned every day for a week. On their first date, Dean drove her to his parents' house first, telling her he knew from the minute he saw her that she was the one he wanted.
Secret Marriage in Georgia
As Parton began making a name for herself as a songwriter collaborating with her uncle Bill Owens, her boss at Combine Music, Fred Foster, warned her against getting married, claiming it would hurt her upcoming break as a singer. Instead, Parton and Dean eloped to Ringgold, Georgia, on May 30, 1966, with only her mother, Avie Lee Parton, attending as witness and photographer.
They kept the wedding secret, and Foster did not learn about it for a year, asking her if she was glad she had not married just as her career expanded. Although her passport listed her as Dolly Parton Dean, she kept her maiden name professionally due to an existing record contract. She later joked to The Guardian in 2014 that taking the name Dolly Dean would have made her Double D again.
Dean attended only one major industry event with Parton: the 1966 BMI Awards banquet, where Parton and Owens were honored in the country category for writing "Put It Off Until Tomorrow." Parton wrote in her book that Dean began pulling off his tuxedo before reaching their car, saying he was happy for her but asking never to attend another such event. He never did, even as Parton went on to receive 48 BMI Awards, 10 Grammy Awards (excluding a 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award), nine Country Music Association Awards, and 13 Academy of Country Music Awards.
Life Away from Spotlight
Joking about the secret to her long marriage, Parton told People in 2018 that the key was to stay gone, noting that her regular touring made their time together special. Early dates at a McDonald's drive-thru window in Dean's Chevrolet set a pattern of simple living that continued even after Forbes estimated Parton's net worth at $440 million in 2023.
Parton told Billboard in 2014 that she enjoyed reading, cooking, and traveling in their camper RV when off the road. To shop without delay, the couple visited 24-hour Walmart and Publix stores in the middle of the night, with Parton telling reporters at the 2019 premiere of her Netflix series "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings" that she enjoyed seeing late-night shoppers while keeping her errands moving.
Private Romance and Family Life
Dean's total avoidance of public attention led some fans to wonder if he existed, though Parton included a composite photo of him on the cover of her 1969 album "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy." In 2020, Parton told ET that Dean was a quiet, reserved person who knew he would never get a minute's peace if he entered public life. On their 50th wedding anniversary, the couple renewed their vows in a chapel ceremony at home, which inspired her song "Forever Love" on her 2016 album "Pure and Simple."
Addressing their choice not to have children, Parton told Billboard that while they initially assumed they would have a family and had even picked out names, she concluded that God intended for everyone's children to be hers. She told The Guardian that had they had a daughter, they would have named her Carla, but noted that raising children would likely have changed her career path. Raised as the fourth of 12 siblings, Parton housed five of her younger brothers and sisters with Dean for years and remained close to her family.
Final Years Together
Throughout their marriage, Dean maintained small romantic gestures, such as bringing Parton a bouquet of yellow daffodils every spring alongside a poem he wrote. While Parton maintained her signature glamorous appearance at home, she noted Dean loved her as she was. Following Dean's death in March 2025, Parton told Today that adapting to life without him was a major adjustment, adding that she would always miss and love him.
