Dolly Parton and husband Carl Dean have been married for 56 years, but they are rarely seen in public together. Here's a timeline of their relationship.

• Dolly Parton and Carl Dean met outside a Nashville laundromat in 1964 and married in 1966.

• Dean stays out of the spotlight, and Parton has addressed conspiracy theories that he doesn't exist.

• Parton told Insider that everyone should know how to make fried chicken for a successful marriage.

1964: Dolly Parton and Carl Dean met outside the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville, Tennessee. She was 18 and he was 21.

Dean was driving by in his pickup truck when he saw Dolly Parton and "hollered" at her, she told The New York Times in 1976. She declined his request for a date but invited him over while she was babysitting her nephew the following day.

"He came up every day that week and we sat out on the porch. I wouldn't even take him in the house," she said. "Then my aunt got a day off, and she could keep the kid and that was my first chance to go anywhere with Carl and he drove me straight to his folks' house and introduced me to his mother and daddy. 'Cause he said he knew right the minute he saw me that that's the one he wanted."

May 30, 1966: Parton and Dean wed in a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.

Parton's record label asked her to wait a year before getting married for the sake of her career, but she and Dean couldn't wait. They went to Georgia so that the event wouldn't be reported in the Tennessee press.

"It was just my mother and Carl and me," she told CMT in 2016. "We went across the state line to Ringgold, Georgia. My mother made me a little white dress and a little bouquet and a little Bible. But I said, 'I can't get married in a courthouse because I'll never feel married.' So we found a little Baptist church in town, and went up to Pastor Don Duvall and said, 'Would you marry us?' We got pictures on the steps right outside the church."

1966: Parton and Dean attended their first — and last — red-carpet event together.

Parton received her first songwriting award at 20 years old for "Put It Off Until Tomorrow" recorded by Bill Phillips, winning BMI's Song of the Year. She and Dean walked the red carpet and attended the dinner and award ceremony, but it wasn't Dean's style.

"After the dinner, we walked back out, and they brought us our car — I don't even remember what we were driving then — and we got in it and headed for home," Parton told audiences at the Marty Stuart Jam in 2011, according to The Boot. "Carl turned to me and said, 'Dolly, I want you to have everything you want, and I'm happy for you, but don't you ever ask me to go to another one of them dang things again!'"

September 1969: Dean made a rare appearance on the cover of Parton's fourth album, "My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy."

"My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" reached No. 6 on the US Top Country Albums charts.

Beyond this image, there are few public photos of the couple.

October 1973: Parton released the song "Jolene," which she says was inspired by a bank teller who was crushing on her husband.

"She got this terrible crush on my husband," Parton told NPR in 2008. "And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, 'Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we've got that kind of money.' So it's really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one."

August 2012: Parton auctioned off a tour of Nashville sites from her history for charity, including the spot on Wedgewood Avenue where she and Dean met.

The auction benefited the Dr. Robert F. Thomas Foundation, which expands access to quality healthcare in Sevier County. The foundation is named for the physician who delivered Parton, and she serves as its honorary chairperson.

May 30, 2016: Parton and Dean renewed their vows for their 50th wedding anniversary, and Dean released his first public statement for the occasion.

"I got all dressed up in the most beautiful gown you've ever seen and dressed that husband of mine up. He looked like a handsome dude out of Hollywood," she told Rolling Stone in 2016. "We had a few family and friends around. We didn't plan anything big at all because we didn't want any kind of strain, any kind of tension, any kind of commotion, so we planned it cleverly and carefully. We just had a simple little ceremony at our chapel at our place."

In his first public statement in honor of their 50th anniversary, Dean also expressed his love for Parton.

"My first thought was, 'I'm gonna marry that girl,'" Dean said in a statement of the moment they met, according to Entertainment Tonight. "My second thought was, 'Lord she's good lookin'.' And that was the day my life began. I wouldn't trade the last 50 years for nothing on this earth."

August 2016: Parton wrote an album of love songs inspired by her relationship with Dean called "Pure and Simple."

"I was just trying to think about all the different colors of love through the years," Parton told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'Well I'm going to write about mine and Carl's relationship. It's just a pure and simple relationship,' so it started with that and then I thought, 'Well why don't I just write a whole album of love songs?'"

December 2018: Parton joked about her husband's crush on Jennifer Aniston on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

Parton and Aniston worked together on the Netflix movie "Dumplin,'" with Parton writing six original songs for the soundtrack.

"I love her to death," she said of Aniston. "My husband is crazy about her. And he was more excited that I was gonna do a movie with her than he was that I got the chance to write all this music."

October 2020: In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Parton addressed conspiracy theories that her husband doesn't actually exist since he's never seen in public.

Parton confirmed that Dean, a retired businessman, is a real person, despite rumors of him being imaginary.

"A lot of people have thought that through the years, because he does not want to be in the spotlight at all," Parton said. "It's just not who he is. He's like, a quiet, reserved person and he figured if he ever got out there in that, he'd never get a minute's peace and he's right about that."

Parton said that they each value their independence, and that Dean values his privacy and has no interest in fame.

"I've always respected and appreciated that in him and I've always tried to keep him out of the limelight as much as I can," she said. "He said, 'I didn't choose this world, I chose you, and you chose that world. But we can keep our lives separate and together.' And we do and we have. We've been together 56 years, married 54."

July 2021: Parton recreated her 1978 Playboy cover for her husband's birthday.

Parton shared a video of herself on Instagram in a black bustier and pink-and-white collar with a bow tie.

"Hey!" Parton said in the video. "You're probably wondering why I'm dressed like this. Well, it's for my husband's birthday."

She said that Dean had always loved her original Playboy cover, so to "make him happy" on his birthday, she decided to get a duplicate outfit and set up her own photo shoot.

"He still thinks I'm a hot chick after 57 years," she said. "And I'm not gonna try and talk him out of that."

October 2021: Parton told W magazine that she and Dean "don't argue" and that she fell for him instantly.

In the interview, Parton discussed her time working with country star and duet partner Porter Wagoner.

"My husband and I don't argue, but Porter and I did nothing but fight. It was a love-hate relationship," she told W magazine's Lynn Hirschberg.

November 2021: Parton shared a rare old photo of her and Dean on Instagram.

The vintage photo appears to have been edited to show Dean wearing a shirt from Parton's line of merchandise available on her website.

"Find you a partner who will support you like my Carl Dean does!" Parton captioned the post.

February 2022: Parton said that fried chicken is the one dish everyone should know how to make for a successful marriage.

"You can't go wrong with fried chicken," Parton told Insider's Anneta Konstantinides. "I think everybody should really know how to make good fried chicken. No matter where people come from, they love good fried chicken. So you need to make good fried chicken!"

When Parton isn't whipping up fried chicken for Carl, she said she's treating him to pork chops with green peas and mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, or chicken and dumplings — her specialty.

"A lot of people like my chicken and dumplings," she said. "I'm pretty famous for that. Carl likes all my cooking. But he, like the rest of them, especially likes the chicken and dumplings."

March 2022: Parton initially said she would turn down her nomination for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but she said Dean has encouraged her to make a rock album.

In March, Parton was one of 17 artists shortlisted and one of seven first-time nominees.

"Even though I am extremely flattered and grateful to be nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I don't feel that I have earned that right," she said in a statement. "I really do not want votes to be split because of me, so I must respectfully bow out."

She added, "This has, however, inspired me to put out a hopefully great rock 'n' roll album at some point in the future, which I have always wanted to do! My husband is a total rock 'n' roll freak, and has always encouraged me to do one."

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame declined Parton's request to be removed from the ballot, saying in a statement, in part, "In addition to her incredible talent as an artist, her humility is another reason Dolly is a beloved icon by millions of fans around the world."

In April, she changed her tune and said she would accept the honor, if she was voted in.

"I'll accept gracefully. I'll just say 'Thanks' and I will accept it because the fans vote," she told NPR's "Morning Edition."

In May, it was announced she had indeed been voted in.

November 2022: Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and she said her next album would be a tribute to Dean's love of the genre.

In a red-carpet interview with E! News at her induction ceremony, Parton said that her upcoming album would feature some of Dean's favorite rock songs.

"We have a lot of favorite songs," she said. "He loves rock 'n' roll, he loves Led Zeppelin and he loves 'Stairway to Heaven.' So I'm going to do a lot of things like that for him."

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