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Parton did bring her spouse to one big event, the BMI Awards banquet in 1966, where she and Owens were being honored in the country category for writing "Put It Off Until Tomorrow."
Afterward, Dean started pulling off his tuxedo before they'd even reached the car. "He said, 'I'm happy for you,'" Parton wrote in her book. "'I want you to do what you want to do. But don't ever ask me to go to another one of them damn things, because I ain't going.' And he never has."
That was the first of 48 BMI Awards she has received, to go with the 10 Grammys (not including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011), nine Country Music Association Awards, 13 Academy of Country Music Awards and a host of other accolades.
But the real prize has been waiting for Parton at home.