Instead of dragging Dean with her to big events, she opts to bring friends who enjoy them — and Dean is more than okay with that arrangement. “He’d never come dragging around,” she explains. “I’d rather bring somebody else with me, you know? He’s never jealous of that either.”
Dean will, however, accompany Parton on household errands. “We go to places Publix or Walmart or places for certain things I want to get, [and] we’d go in the middle of the night to those places that are open 24 hours a day,” Parton shares, adding that late-night outings afford them more privacy: “You’d be surprised at how lucky I’d get with that. You see a few people, and I don’t mind — I love people — I just don’t want to slow up my shopping,”
Parton and Dean got married Ringgold, Ga., on May 30, 1966, just two years after they met at the Wishy Washy Laundromat. Parton had moved to Nashville and was doing her laundry there when Dean drove by in his white Chevy pickup truck, spotted his future wife and came in to say hello. The couple was young when they married — she was 20, and he was 23 — but 55 years later, they’re still together.