12 of the Longest-Lasting Marriages in Country Music
12 of the Longest-Lasting Marriages in Country Music
Emy LaCroixWed, November 11, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC
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Dolly Parton and Carl Dean; Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.Credit: Dolly Parton/Instagram; Jason Kempin/Getty
Some of country music’s biggest stars have been married for decades.
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, for example, have been husband and wife for 30 years.
Country legend Dolly Parton, meanwhile, was married to her husband, Carl Dean, for 58 years before his death in March 2025. Parton died the following summer in August 2026 at age 80.
“I always joke and laugh when people ask me what’s the key to my long marriage and lasting love,” she told PEOPLE in November 2018. “I always say ‘Stay gone!’ and there’s a lot of truth to that. I travel a lot, but we really enjoy each other when we’re together and the little things we do.”
Here are 12 couples with some of the longest-lasting marriages in country music.
01 of 12
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean: 58 Years
Dolly Parton and Carl Dean.Credit: courtesy Dolly Parton
Parton and Dean tied the knot in May 1966 and were together until his death at age 82 in March 2025. The late singer died the following August at 80.
“Ours is a great old love story. Most people don’t stay that close that long,” she told PEOPLE a few months after her husband’s death, in November 2025. “That’s a loss. Nobody can ever know that unless you’ve experienced it yourself. He will always be in my heart and in my memories.”
02 of 12
Martina McBride and John McBride: 38 Years
John McBride and Martina McBride attend the 4th Annual Guitar Center Music Foundation Gala.Credit: Michael Tullberg/Getty
Martina McBride and her husband, John McBride, met in 1987 and got married the following May. The couple have since welcomed three children.
“It was just a feeling I had that he was ‘the one,’ ” she PEOPLE in October 2021. “It really helps if you find someone you like, not just love. … Because when you’re at your empty nest at the end of the day, it’s important to have somebody who you can just be silent with.”
03 of 12
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill: 30 Years
Tim McGraw and Faith Hill attend the 16th Annual Academy of Country Music Honors.Credit: Terry Wyatt/Getty
Country superstars McGraw and Hill celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary in October 2026.
The duo met for the first time in 1994 and began dating two years later after reconnecting on tour. “We were young and silly and goo-goo-eyed in love,” McGraw later told PEOPLE.
After marrying in 1996, they went on to welcome three daughters.
“She knows my heart and my soul better than anybody in the world, even better than my mother, I’m sure,” McGraw said of Hill during an October 2026 interview with Esquire. “She understands the person that I am, and the person that I try to be and want to be.”
04 of 12
George Strait and Norma Strait: 54 Years
George Strait and his wife Norma Strait at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors gala.Credit: Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty
George Strait and his wife, Norma Strait, are high school sweethearts who eloped to Mexico in December 1971. They later welcomed two children.
In December 2021, George celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by serenading his longtime love during a concert in Las Vegas.
“So I was 19 years old. And I knew this girl, Norma,” he told the crowd. “She was 17, really hot. So we fell in love. We went to Mexico and eloped … 50 years ago today.”
05 of 12
Loretta Lynn and Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn: 48 Years
Loretta Lynn and husband Oliver Mooney’ Lynn, Jr.Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Loretta Lynn’s marriage to Oliver “Doolittle” Lynn lasted for 48 years and had “lots of ups and downs,” the late singer told PEOPLE in 2010.
Following their January 1948 nuptials, the couple welcomed six children and were together until Doolittle’s death at age 69 in August 1996. Loretta later died in October 2022 at age 90.
“If it wasn’t for Doolittle, there would be no career,” Loretta wrote in her 1976 memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter. “I wouldn’t have started singing in the first place, and I wouldn’t have had the inspiration for some of my best songs, in the second place. And I never could have run my business. So in a real sense, Doolittle is responsible for everything we got.”
06 of 12
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: 35 Years
June Carter Cash and Johnny Cash at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash met in the 1950s at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. The following decade, the “Ring of Fire” singer famously proposed onstage in February 1968, and they married just over a week later, on March 1.
The pair released several albums together and raise their son, John, before June’s death in May 2003 at age 73. Johnny died a few months later, in September 2003, at age 71.
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“There’s unconditional love there,” he told Rolling Stone of his and June’s marriage in October 2000. “She loves me in spite of everything, in spite of myself. She has saved my life more than once.”
07 of 12
Willie Nelson and Annie D’Angelo: 35 Years
Annie Nelson and Willie Nelson in 2012.Credit: Gary Miller/WireImage
Willie Nelson and his wife, Annie D’Angelo, have been married since September 1991.
The couple met while working on the 1986 movie Stagecoach and share two sons. They celebrated 35 years of marriage in 2026.
“I call her my pet rattler,” Nelson joked to PEOPLE of his wife in May 2023. “She’s my lover, my wife, nurse, doctor, bodyguard.”
08 of 12
Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White: 45 Years
Sharon White and Ricky Skaggs attend the Medallion Ceremony for the Class of 2025.Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty
Ricky Skaggs and Sharon White married in August 1981 and released their first duet, “Love Can’t Ever Get Better Than This,” in 1986.
The duo went on to welcome two kids and released their first full-length collaborative album, Hearts Like Ours, in 2014.
09 of 12
Kix Brooks and Barbara Brooks: 45 Years
Kix Brooks and Barbara Brooks attend the class of 2022 Medallion Ceremony.Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty
Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn met his wife, Barbara Brooks, in Maine in 1979, per The Boot.
The couple dated long-distance after Kix moved to Nashville and eventually married in August 1981. They went on to welcome two children, who often joined Kix on tour growing up.
“It was always fun being on the road,” Barbara recalled to Farm Flavor in March 2015. “The kids loved it because they were never more than 45 feet from us, and I loved it because, other than them, I had no responsibilities. There was no laundry, no dishes to wash and all the meals were catered.”
10 of 12
Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black: 35 Years
Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black attend the world premiere of “When I Said I Do” on May 12, 2026.Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty
Clint Black and Knots Landing alum Lisa Hartman Black’s love story began when they met backstage after one of his concerts on New Year’s Eve in 1990.
“It was slow motion, like you see in the movies,” Lisa recalled to PEOPLE in October 2021. “There was something there.”
The longtime couple married in October 1991 — less than a year after they first met — at Clint’s farm in Texas. They went on to welcome daughter Lily Pearl in May 2001.
“It’s communication,” Lisa told Fox News of the key to their last marriage in May 2026. “And he’s my friend. He’s my best friend. When you treat each other that way, you have to honor your friendship, trust it and respect it. We’ve somehow managed to do that, and here we are nearly 35 years later.”
11 of 12
Vince Gill and Amy Grant: 26 Years
Vince Gill and Amy Grant at A Celebration of Dolly Parton on October 21, 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee.Credit: Tibrina Hobson/Variety via Getty
Vince Gill and Amy Grant first met in 1993 when they were both married to other people. The duo maintained a friendship for years before marrying in March 2000.
“We got together because he was the kindest person I ever met and I was so attracted to him. I fell in love with him. I couldn’t un-know his kindness,” Grant said during an appearance on the Human School Podcast in September 2026.
Following their nuptials, the couple welcomed daughter Corrina into their blended family in March 2001. In March 2026, they celebrated 26 years of marriage.
12 of 12
Barbara Mandrell and Ken Dudney: 59 Years
Barbara Mandrell and Ken Dudney during 15th Annual Soap Opera Digest Awards.Credit: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Country singer Barbara Mandrell and film producer Ken Dudney married in 1967 after her dad hired him as a drummer for her family’s band, per her website.
After their nuptials, Mandrell briefly stepped away from music to “focus on being a wife.” It wasn’t long before she returned to the stage, however, and in 1971, she scored her first hit single with her cover of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now).”
Mandrell and Dudney share three children and celebrated 59 years of marriage in 2026.
“We married for forever, and keeping God at the center of our lives has made it work and made it blessed and happy,” she told The Boot in May 2009.
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