SHORT TAKES : Dolly’s Hubby Avoids Limelight
It’s been 24 years since Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, have appeared together on stage, and that’s the way he wants it.
Her Dec. 21 Christmas special on ABC, “Dolly Parton . . . Christmas at Home,” will include her mother, father, six brothers, five sisters, about a dozen aunts and uncles and 15 or so nieces and nephews--but not her husband.
“He’s very shy, and not the least bit interested in show business,” she says in next week’s TV Guide.
They last appeared together in 1966, the year they were married, when Parton had to attend a music awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
“Carl rented a tuxedo for the night, and I won an award for best song of the year,” she said. “But when we got home, he said, ‘Dolly, I think you’re terrific and talented, and I wish you the best, but don’t ever ask me to anything like that again.’ ”
Dean does not accompany Parton on the road, preferring to remain in Nashville, where he owns an asphalt-paving business.
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