Dolly Parton Was ‘Outraged’ and ‘Scared to Death’ by the Way Her Future Husband Introduced Her to His Mom
Dolly Parton’s husband took her to meet his mother on their first real date. She found this surprising, though it wasn’t nearly as shocking as the words he used to introduce her. Parton said the way he introduced her made her feel stranger than she ever had in her life.
Dolly Parton couldn’t believe the way her future husband introduced her
Parton moved to Nashville in 1964, and met her future husband, Carl Dean, nearly immediately upon arrival. She was outside a laundromat when he drove past and struck up a conversation with her.
After their first meeting, Dean visited Parton while she worked a babysitting job. When she got a day off, he took her on their first real date. He hadn’t told her where they were going, so she was shocked when he pulled into the driveway of his parents’ home.
“Inside, his mother was just putting supper on the table. Without any other word of introduction Carl said to his mother, ‘Fix this girl a plate. She’s the one I’m going to marry,’” Parton wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “With a nervous laugh I tried to acknowledge that he had made a little joke. But something in his voice told me he hadn’t.”
Parton grappled with the wave of emotions — both positive and negative — she felt at his words.
“In all my life, I have never felt such an odd combination of emotions,” she wrote. “First, I was shocked that he wanted to marry me, since he had never given me any indication that he cared that much for me. Second, I was astounded. I remember thinking, ‘Who the hell does this guy think he is?’ I felt flattered, outraged, touched, turned on, scared to death, and completely confused.”
Ultimately, she decided she wanted to keep seeing Dean.
“There I was, feeling as mixed up as a road lizard in a spin dryer, and having to act sociable while trying to keep my dinner down,” she wrote. “I somehow got through the meal and worked things out in my own mind enough to keep seeing Carl.”
Dolly Parton said her husband struggled to tell her he loved her
Though Dean confidently talked about marrying Parton after a week of knowing her, he struggled to tell her he loved her.
“In all this time, Carl had never said he loved me,” she wrote. “He had never even said he liked me. He had, and has, a strange way of talking and an odd sense of humor.”
She continued to fall for him even though she wasn’t certain about how he felt.
“He was so handsome, I used to wonder if he had other girlfriends, but he never said or did anything to lead me to believe he did,” she wrote. “Here I was falling more and more deeply in love with a man who had never given me any indication at all about his feelings for me.”
She said their differences made her more attracted to him
As they dated, Parton realized that she and Dean differed in many ways. She said this is part of what drew her to him.
“[S]ome of his behavior did seem awfully odd,” she wrote. “In fact, he seemed odd. Maybe the fact that he was so different made me that much more attracted to him. He was always a perfect gentleman, though. I guess if I had to say one thing about Carl it would be that he is not only a gentleman but a truly gentle man.”
They married in 1966.
