Mr. Dean, who inspired songs including “Jolene” and “From Here to the Moon and Back,” was known to shy away from the spotlight as his wife rose to fame.

Few journalists ever got to meet Carl Dean, the husband of Dolly Parton, who died Monday at age 82. He was renowned for his reclusiveness, developing a legend — probably in spite of himself — as perhaps the least-sighted but most-speculated-about spouse of any enduring superstar in the last half-century of pop culture.