Dolly Parton never had to leave her husband to find herself

When Dolly Parton came to Nashville in 1964, finding a husband was the last thing on her mind. She was 18 years old, newly arrived from the mountains of East Tennessee, and clear about what she had come to do: “I was here to become a star.”

Then a young man with sky-blue eyes drove past the Wishy Washy Laundromat.

Reading about Parton and Dean makes you suspect we’ve forgotten how to disagree inside a marriage.

Parton was outside waiting for her clothes when 21-year-old Carl Dean spotted her, called something out the window, circled the block, and came back. She talked to him because he was “drop-dead handsome,” but she was also surprised that he looked at her face while they talked — “a rare thing for