7 Surprising Facts About Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty was just 59 years old when he died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm 32 years ago, on June 5, 1993. Ever the showman, the country music legend was onstage at Branson, Missouri’s Jim Stafford Theater when he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. Emergency surgery couldn’t save Twitty. But death could never dim his star.
During his four decades in the music business, Conway Twitty was known for his rich baritone, wavy pompadour ‘do — and for serving as Mississippi man to Loretta Lynn‘s Lou’siana woman during their years as a country music powerhouse duo. Though he originally fancied himself a rock star and enjoyed plenty of success as a crossover artist, Twitty found his home and most faithful fans in the country music world. Before his passing, Twitty charted 55 No. 1 singles and sold more than 50 million albums with hits like “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” “To See My Angel Cry” and “How Much More Can She Stand.”
To remember Twitty on the nniversary of his untimely death, say “Hello, Darlin’” to these lesser known facts about “The High Priest of Country Music.”
1 Hello, Harold
When it came to choosing a stage name, Harold Lloyd Jenkins — who was, indeed, Mississippi-born — literally went to the map. Jenkins thought he needed something flashy, a la his hero Elvis Presley, in order to stand out from the crowd, but he couldn’t come up with a winner. So he really did pull out a good ol’ US road map, landed his finger first on Conway, Arkansas, and then on Twitty, Texas. The rest is musical history.
2 He started strumming at age 4|
According to his official web site, little Harold Jenkins got his first guitar — a Sears & Roebuck special — before he even reached kindergarten. He formed his first band, the Phillips County Ramblers, when he was just 10.
3 He saved a childhood buddy
As a kid, Jenkins was playing with his pals in a local cemetery. A tombstone tipped over, pinning one of the boys beneath it. As the scared kids scattered, Harold ran back and managed to lift the stone just enough to save his friend. When the fellows returned the next day to push the stone back upright, they were stunned to find that all of them together couldn’t make it budge.
> Hello Darlin’: Flashback to Conway Twitty’s Greatest Hits
4 Twitty was almost a Phillie
Boasting a .450 batting average as a high school baseball star, the young standout fielded an offer from the Philadelphia Phillies. Before he could take that offer, young Jenkins was drafted, where he discovered he loved to entertain a crowd. The Phillies offer stood when he got back home from the Far East, but the soon-to-be Conway Twitty chose music instead. But he never lost his love for baseball and co-owned two minor league teams, the Nashville Sounds, a farm team for the Cincinnati Reds, and the former Salem Redbirds in Huntsville, Alabama.
5 Conway landed on Broadway … sort of
Everett Collection
By 1960, Conway Twitty was a certified teen heartthrob with acting gigs in a trio of teen movies and a chart-topping hit in “It’s Only Make Believe.” So when the producers of the new Broadway play Bye Bye, Birdie needed a memorable name for their rock-star heartthrob character, they went a little bit Twitty and a little bit Presley and Conrad Birdie was born.
6 Mooney Lynn championed the pairing of Conway and Loretta
Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn were country music superstars in their own right when Loretta’s husband suggested they try a song together. Both singers’ teams were horrified at the prospect, but Mooney Lynn knew just the song: Becki Bluefield and Jim Owens’s “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man.” Already friends (but never lovers), Conway and Loretta were game and the song became hit, staying at No. 1 on the country charts for a total of 13 weeks. The pair would go on to record a dozen top ten hits together, five of them No. 1s.
7 Twitty championed younger singers and songwriters
Right up until the end, Twitty supported the work of country music newcomers, many of whom would go on to superstardom in their own right. According to the Country Music Hall of Fame website, Vince Gill, Kathy Mattea, Naomi Judd and Reba McEntire would all credit Conway for giving them a leg up in the industry. His graciousness even earned Twitty the unofficial title of “a songwriter’s best friend.”
Remind 
Kings Of Country
March 2022
From outlaws Willie & Waylon to the Man in Black, Johnny Cash, we have every tear in your beer covered
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