(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
DOLLY PARTON: (Singing) Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
You know this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
PARTON: (Singing) I'm begging of you please don't take my man.
SUMMERS: The singer and songwriter - Dolly Parton. The man in question - her husband, Carl Thomas Dean. And the woman with flaming locks of auburn hair was inspired by two different redheads.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
One was a young girl - maybe 8 years old - who asked for Dolly Parton's autograph after a show. She gave her name as Jolene. The other was a tall, leggy bank teller, as Parton told NPR in 2008.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
PARTON: She got this terrible crush on my husband. And he just loved going to the bank 'cause she paid him so much attention. It was kind of like a running joke between us, when I was saying, hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money. So it's really an innocent song all around but sounds like a dreadful one.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
PARTON: (Singing) I'm begging of you please don't take my man.
SUMMERS: Dolly Parton has announced that her husband, Carl Dean, died on Monday, March 3. They were together for more than 60 years.
SHAPIRO: The couple met at a laundromat on the day Parton moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Parton described the moment in 1977 on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JOHNNY CARSON")
PARTON: Anyway, we met at the Wishie Washie. And in all honesty, it's been wishy washy ever since.
JOHNNY CARSON: The Wishie Washie? That's...
(LAUGHTER)
PARTON: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
PARTON: And two years later, we married.
SUMMERS: Carl Dean was almost never in the spotlight. For all of her stardom, Dolly Parton kept her personal life quite private. But back in 2023, I got to talk to the country music legend about her album of classic rock songs, and she told me that while she rarely bothered her husband with her music, she sought his ear for this project.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
PARTON: And then when it was all over, he said, well, I have to say, that's pretty damn good. And so for him to say that would be like somebody else jumping up and down, you know, with pompoms and saying, that's the best thing I ever heard. But to me, for him to say, I have to say, that's pretty damn good, that was all I needed to hear, 'cause I knew he liked it.
SHAPIRO: In a statement, Dolly Parton wrote, Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can't do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Carl Thomas Dean was 82 years old.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOLENE")
PARTON: (Singing) Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, please don't take him just because you can. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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