The country music legend, who passed away at age 80, met the Nashville native as her career began to take off, and they famously had an “open” marriageBeloved country singer Dolly Parton, known for her timeless songs “Jolene”, “I Will Always Love You” and “9 to 5”, sadly passed away on August 25 at age 80.The musician faced autoimmune and kidney issues before her death and was admitted to the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville last Friday, per People. Parton’s nephew and her security head, Bryan Seaver, also shared news of her passing in a video on Instagram. The type of cancer was not specified.Dolly Parton’s My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy album cover. Photo: DollyParton.comOn the day she was admitted to the hospital, Parton told People about her recent health decline. “As I’ve shared in video messages throughout the past year, I am dealing with some health issues that I just didn’t pay attention to when I was watching over Carl,” she said. “[I]t’s not like I haven’t been through hard times with my health.”A fan pays tribute to Dolly Parton by wearing a T-shirt bearing images of the music superstar at her statue in Sevierville, Tennessee, on August 25. Photo: Getty Images/AFPParton’s late husband, Carl Thomas Dean, passed away in March 2025 at age 82. The couple met when Parton was 18 years old, and were together for 60 years. Parton shared her struggles with dealing with the death of her husband, who had kept a low profile compared to his superstar wife. “I’ll always miss him, of course, and I’ll always love him,” she told Today in an interview two months after his passing. “He was a great partner.”Here’s everything we know about the country singer’s late husband, Carl Thomas Dean.How did Dolly Parton meet Carl Thomas Dean?Dolly Parton and Carl Thomas Dean in the 1960s. Photo: @60swonderland/InstagramThe love story between Dolly Parton and her one and only husband of nearly six decades, Carl Thomas Dean, could have come straight out of a country romance ballad.The pair met for the first time in 1964 at the Wishy Washy Laundromat on Parton’s first day in Nashville. She was 18, and he was about four years older. They dated for two years before tying the knot in 1966. This is when the singer’s career started to take flight with the release of her debut album Hello, I’m Dolly in 1967, according to her new Channel 5 documentary, Dolly Parton: In Her Own Words.