You can get a lot done in two hours, but still… two hours for a honeymoon is pretty short.
Dolly Parton has been married to her husband Carl Dean for 57 years now, after meeting the first day Dolly moved to Nashville outside of the Wishy Washy laundromat in 1964. And actually, at the time of their wedding, Dolly’s newfound record label didn’t want her to get married at all.
They thought it might tarnish her image, and as we all know, Dolly did what she wanted anyways… so she and Carl Dean secretly ran off to Ringgold, Georgia, along with Parton’s mom Avie Lee as a witness, and headed for the local courthouse.
Before the ceremony, Dolly realized that she didn’t want to do it at a government building, but rather a church. That wasn’t possible seeing as it was a Friday afternoon, and the county worker told them they’d have to come back on Monday.
After driving through the town looking for the perfect church, Dolly found Ringgold Baptist Church and decided that’s where she wanted to tie the knot. When Monday finally came back around, the trio drove back to Georgia from Nashville.
Dolly wrote in her 1994 memoir, Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business, that when that Monday finally rolled around, they were pressed for time because Carl had to get back to work and Dolly was scheduled for an appearance on The Ralph Emery Show the next day:
“Because of the Monday rule, we were now pressed for time. Carl had to be at work the next morning, and I had agreed to do The Ralph Emery Show, which was done live at that ungodly hour.
I would have to get up at three o’clock the next morning to prepare. By the time we got to Nashville and our bed (!!!), there was only a little while left before I was due on ‘The Ralph Emery Show.'”
Time was no issue for Mr. Carl Dean, though, it sounds like, because Dolly gave him credit saying that, while he typically had a hard time telling her he loved her, “he left no doubt about it that night”:
“I guess you could say our honeymoon was about two hours long.
We made the most of those two hours, though, and to his credit I will say that for a man who had had trouble telling me he loved me, he left no doubt about it that night.”
Sounds like two hours is all they needed, but I digress…
And after nearly 60 decades of marriage, they’re still going strong, so much so that Dolly still wants to dress up and impress her husband, recreating her iconic 1978 Playboy cover for him on his birthday a few years ago. I hate the term “relationship goals,” but this would certainly be the only appropriate time to use it.
Here’s to 57 more years of bliss for Dolly and Carl Dean. And I’ll leave you with this…
