Dolly and Carl’s 50th Wedding Anniversary

Published May 27, 2016 / Last Updated May 28, 2016

Dolly Parton and her husband Carl Dean celebrate their Golden Wedding Anniversary!

Dolly and Carl Dean have enjoyed 50 years of wedded bliss despite facing many of life’s obstacles common to most married couples and plenty of unique challenges all their own.

They met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville, TN, on the first day Dolly moved to Music City. Falling in love and getting married were, perhaps, the last things on young Dolly Parton’s mind. Yet, here was a tall, dark and handsome man who swept her off her feet. She said,

“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me). He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”

Two years after that fateful meeting, Dolly and Carl were married on May 30, 1966. It was Memorial Day, Dolly and Carl traveled to Ringgold, GA, with her mother. They had a simple, private ceremony with only Avie Lee, the preacher and his wife in attendance. Since that day, Dolly and Carl have lived happily-ever-after for 50 years. They’ve loved and supported each other while respecting each other’s independence.

 

Their 50 years of happiness is a true testament to their parents, Avie Lee and Robert Lee Parton and Carl’s mother and father, Virginia “Ginny” Bates Dean and Edgar “Ed” Henry Dean. The Parton’s had 12 children and the Dean’s had three. Dolly fondly referred to Ginny as Mama Dean and says she was her best friend.

Nearly every aspect of Dolly and Carl’s personalities compliment one another. While one would think Dolly would be the most entertaining of the two, she often says that it’s Carl’s unique sense of humor which keeps her laughing. Given Dolly’s larger-than-life outlook on everything, it makes perfect sense that her one-and-only would be equally as special in every way.

Dolly’s wedding dress and Carl’s suit will be on display at Dolly’s Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood beginning July 1.

Since she has no plans of slowing down, what has worked for Dolly and Carl for the past 50 years is sure to carry them through the next.

Dolly penned her heartfelt emotions for Carl in the words of her song, “From Here to the Moon and Back.”

“From here to the moon and back
Who else in this world will love you like that?
Love everlasting, I promise you that
From here to the moon and back”DP-Sig

Michael MartinDolly and Carl’s 50th Wedding Anniversary

‘From Here to the Moon and Back’ duet with Willie Nelson

Published May 1, 2014 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly

Dolly re-records ‘From Here to the Moon and Back’ as duet with Willie Nelson, marking their third duet together

A newly recorded version of Dolly’s song “From Here to the Moon and Back” featuring Willie Nelson as her duet partner appears on Willie’s 2014 album of duets.

The duet originally appeared on the soundtrack for “Joyful Noise,” a movie starring Dolly as a choir member opposite her choir director portrayed by Queen Latifah, with whom Dolly’s character butted heads as the group tried to win a national choral competition.

Willie said in an interview,

“Dolly’s song is a great song, ‘From Here to the Moon and Back,’ it’s one of my favorites.”


Dolly and Willie had a Top 10 duet with the song “Everything’s Beautiful (In It’s Own Way)” in 1982 and also paired up for 1983’s “I Really Don’t Want to Know.” Willie appeared with Dolly in the 1989 television special “Kenny, Dolly, & Willie.”

 

Team Dolly‘From Here to the Moon and Back’ duet with Willie Nelson

‘The Bachelorette’

Published May 28, 2012 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly

Dolly makes appearance on ABC’s ‘The Bachelorette’

Dolly sang her song “From Here to the Moon and Back” on the May 28, 2012, episode of season eight of “The Bachelorette” on ABC. On the episode, she also lends her theme park Dollywood to the bachelorette, Emily Maynard and her date.

Dolly said of the episode,

“Being a part of ‘The Bachelorette’ at Dollywood and meeting Emily and her date was so fun,” she continued, “I’m just a big ole romantic anyway so we had the best time!”

Emily Maynard chose Dollywood because she loves Dolly,

“One of my favorite moments of my whole life, not just of being the bachelorette, was meeting Dolly Parton. I can’t even put into words how excited I was.”

In addition to her performance of “From Here to the Moon and Back (originally from the “Joyful Noise” soundtrack), Dolly also performed a song she wrote especially for the show entitled “Love Will Find a Way.” On the episode, she also has a girl-to-girl talk with Maynard about what she is looking for in a man.

Team Dolly‘The Bachelorette’

‘Joyful Noise’

Published January 13, 2012 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly

Dolly plays G.G. Sparrow in Warner Brothers movie ‘Joyful Noise’

Dolly starred in the Warner Brothers movie “Joyful Noise.” In 2012, during a decade when small towns faced a variety of economic problems, Dolly felt it was high-time for a feel-good movie about “a little town that’s going through their problems, like everyone is these days.”

Dolly plays G.G. Sparrow in “Joyful Noise,” which focuses on a choir member at odds with the choir’s current director, played by Queen Latifah, at a church trying to win a national choral singing competition.

She was particularly excited to work with Queen Latifah.

“I always thought it’d be fun to work with her because everybody just loves her. And she is so cool and she’s so funny. We really get along great. There’s a great chemistry, which we hoped there would be, and it really comes through. There’s a lot of magic in it.”

Many of the funniest parts of the movie are verbal battles between Latifah and Dolly, filled with classic “Dollyisms” like “God didn’t put plastic surgeons on earth to starve.” Amid the humor, the movie underscores the prevailing theme that people need to come together during hard times.

Dolly wrote three songs for the movie– “Not Enough,” “From Here to the Moon and Back,” and “He’s Everything.”

Team Dolly‘Joyful Noise’

‘Joyful Noise’ soundtrack

Published January 10, 2012 / Last Updated August 23, 2015
Team Dolly is a collaboration of writers, editors, and publishers assembled by Dolly Parton Productions. Each member is dedicated to accurately publishing the latest news and historical archives of the living legend that is Dolly Rebecca Parton.

Managing Editor - Jacob Timmons
Creative Director - Sarah Chapman
Team Dolly

Dolly wrote three songs for the “Joyful Noise Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” including a love song, “From Here to the Moon and Back.”

Dolly’s starring role in the movie “Joyful Noise” (2012) led to her writing three original songs for the soundtrack to the Warner Brothers movie (her first leading role since “Straight Talk” in 1992).

Her three songs (“From Here to the Moon and Back,” “Not Enough,” and “He’s Everything”) were the newest in a list of over 3,000 songs published by Dolly who wrote her first song at the age of five. Dolly once said,

“Ever since I was a little bitty kid, I could just rhyme everything. Every story was a rhyme. It was always fun and it just kind of carried on over the years. I love to write. That’s my favorite thing of all. To me, I’d rather write than to sing. My biggest thrill is to write songs then go in the studio and hear them back.”

The movie features Dolly and Queen Latifah as competing choir members who end up working together to help their church choir win a national choral competition. The soundtrack has sold well over 100,000 copies since its release.

The song “From Here to the Moon and Back” was meaningful as Dolly said her husband, Carl Dean was her muse. “I needed to write a beautiful love song. I picked my husband, who I love, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll write some beautiful song about him.’ It was about my husband in the movie, played by Kris Kristofferson, so I thought in order to make it really real and really touching, I would write it about my real, true emotions about someone I really do love and have loved for more than half of my life.”

“Not Enough” is about coming together with others to solve problems when things are tough which is the common thread of the film itself.

“He’s Everything” is a gospel song written to highlight the church choir at the center of the movie. God was right at the center of why Dolly was involved in the movie,

“I really just felt for myself that [Joyful Noise] was a very uplifting thing for me. It was like good medicine for my own soul, and the fact that it’s to help, hopefully, uplift mankind. But I just think that we should just be praising God a little more than we are, to just glorify Him more.”

Team Dolly‘Joyful Noise’ soundtrack