Dolly Parton made her first public appearance since the passing of her husband, Carl Dean, earlier this month.
Appearing on stage the stage at an event in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee celebrating the opening of Dollywood for its 40th season, on Friday, the country icon was greeted with warm applause from her loving fans, and thanked everyone “for all the flowers and cards, and the well-wishes.”
She then acknowledged Dean, saying “You know how I loved him,” before referencing her hit composition “I Will Always Love You” in a message to the fans themselves. “Of course, I’m going to always love him… and I will always love you,” she said to the crowd.
Elsewhere she indicated that Dean’s death wouldn’t slow her activity. “He would want me to be working today,” she said. “I expect to be working.”
Footage of the moment was shared by local news outlet WVLT, which uploaded the 31-minute video feed of the Dollywood event to its website. Elsewhere in the presentation, Parton spent a good portion of time celebrating 40 years of Dollywood and all the work that’s gone on around it. She even concluded the event with an acoustic performance of her song, “Celebrate the Dreamer in You.”
Dean’s death was announced on March 3rd, with Parton writing in a statement “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.”
She then followed up with the release of a single dedicated to Dean, “If You Hadn’t Been There,” which Consequence named as our Song of the Week for its graceful, loving treatment of loss and remembrance.
In other Dolly news, she recently requested the state of Indiana to restore funding for her Imagination Library program in the state. She also recently teamed up with both Sabrina Carpenter and The Wiggles for new songs.
Content shared from consequence.net.