Dolly Parton visited her very own Tennessee mountain home on Friday.
Following the death of her husband Carl Dean on March 3, the country icon made her first public appearance at Dollywood’s Celebrity Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Parton, 79, arrived at the theme park to help kick off the resort’s 40th operating season.
During her appearance, the singer addressed the death of Dean. “Of course I will always love him, and I’ll miss him, but I wanted you to know that I will always love you,” she said, per local news.
Parton and Dean were married for 59 years before he passed away at the age of 82 in Nashville.
The “I Will Always Love You” artist confirmed her partner’s death on Instagram.
“Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” her message read.
In a separate post, Parton thanked fans via Instagram for their support.
“This is a love note to family, friends, and fans. Thank you for all the messages, cards, and flowers that you’ve sent to pay your respects for the loss of my beloved husband Carl,” she wrote. “I can’t reach out personally to each of you but just know it has meant the world to me. He is in God’s arms now and I am okay with that. I will always love you.”
Parton also paid tribute to Dean by releasing an emotional song titled “If You Hadn’t Been There.”
The “Steel Magnolias” actress used a throwback photo of herself and Dean as the album cover art, which she shared via Instagram last week.
In the photo, a young Parton wraps her arms around her husband’s neck as she stands behind him.
“Carl and I fell in love when I was 18 and he was 23, and like all great love stories, they never end,” she captioned the post. “They live in memory and in song, and I dedicate this to him.”
“If you hadn’t been there / Where would I be? / Without your trust, love and belief,” Parton belts out on the track. “The ups and downs / We’ve always shared / And I wouldn’t be here, if you hadn’t been there.”
The couple met at a Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville when Parton was just 18. They tied the knot on May 30, 1966.
“My first thought was ‘I’m gonna marry that girl.’ My second thought was, ‘Lord she’s good looking.’ And that was the day my life began,” Dean told Entertainment Tonight in 2016. “I wouldn’t trade the last 50 years for nothing on this Earth.”
The pair never had any children.
“He likes his freedom. If I call him, that’s fine, he ain’t expectin’ it. He doesn’t like me home for long because it interferes with his tradin’. So we never really have any hold on each other. And yet we have the ultimate hold,” Parton said about their marriage in 1982.
Over the years, Parton was vocal about the secret to their successful and long lasting union.
In 1982, she told People, “Carl is the one man in my life. I would love to grow old with him. If he should die first, I may never marry again. My love is that deep.”
Parton also dished on keeping their romance private, telling the outlet in 2019, “He’s always supporting me as long as I don’t try to drag him in on it. He’s always been my biggest fan behind the scenes, but he’s at home.”
In May, Parton explained to E! News that it was “important to have someone there in your corner.”
“And you know they’ll love you for just who you are,” gushed the songstress. “There’s a great comfort in knowing that someone loves you exactly for who you are — because he fell in love with me before I became a star.”
