Dolly Parton, ‘doing better,’ reappears to open Dollywood where her late husband had one rule

As the Grand Ole Opry marked 100 years Wednesday night, Reba McEntire said what many people may have been thinking: The party wasn’t the same without Dolly Parton throwing down.

“It’s been a great night of celebration, but of course, it’s just not the same without you,” McEntire said to the country star, who per “Today” had appeared before the start of the show with a message on video. “Dolly, everybody here at the Opry and around the world wants to send you our thoughts and prayers. And you gotta know, we will always love you.”

Last week the grieving Parton had reappeared in person in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to surprise fans at last Friday’s season passholders-only opening of Dollywood, where late husband Carl Dean had one rule.

“He bought his own ticket,” Parton told local outlet Knox News, a.k.a. the Knoxville News Sentinel, as the theme park kicked off its 40th season. “Stood in line and got his ticket. He didn’t want somebody giving him a ticket ‘cause he was Dolly’s husband.

“Everybody thinks that’s the funniest thing.”

During his solo visits to the park, he would skip the roller coasters, grab a snack and just walk around looking at everything, she said.

The country singer-songwriter, whose husband died March 3 after nearly 60 years of marriage, told fans at the Dollywood opening last Friday that she had been “crying enough” since his death.

“I need to laugh. I need some fun, so I’m probably gonna be stupid,” she said.

Parton told Knox News in an interview that she was “at peace” with Dean being at peace, but said, “that don’t keep me from missing him and loving him.” He “suffered a great deal” at the end of his life, she told Knox News.

“I’m doing better than I thought I would” since the death, she said separately. “I’ve been with him 60 years. So, I’m going to have to relearn some of the things that we’ve done. But I’ll keep him always close.”

Parton and Dean met outside a laundromat in 1964, when she was 18 and he was 21. They got married on Memorial Day 1966, and he stayed in the background for almost the entirety of their marriage.

Dean died March 3 in Nashville at age 82. He is survived by Parton and his siblings, Sandra and Donnie.