Born in Friar’s Point on September 1, 1933, as Harold Lloyd Jenkins, the son of a ferryboat captain, Conway Twitty rose from early musical training with local blues musicians, Grand Ole Opry broadcasts, and a childhood country band in Helena, Arkansas, to become first a bluesy rockabilly star and then one of country music’s bestselling balladeers. After working as a radio D.J., playing semi-professional baseball, serving in the U.S. Army, performing in Japan with The Cimmarons, and briefly recording at Sun Records while writing “Rock House” for Roy Orbison, he signed with MGM Records, took the name Conway Twitty from Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas, and scored a worldwide rock hit in 1958 with “It’s Only Make Believe.” In the early 1960s his parents, Floyd and Velma Jenkins, ran Conway’s supper club on Moon Lake, where he regularly appeared, and after a decade of moderate rock success he returned to country, beginning in 1970 with “Hello Darlin’” on Decca Records and launching an extraordinary run of hits that included fifty consecutive No. 1 songs, eleven written by him, along with duets with Loretta Lynn such as the Grammy-winning “After the Fire is Gone.” Known for bringing greater sensuality, drama, sexual frankness, and emotional directness to country music in recordings and live performances, he earned a huge following and the nickname “The High Priest of Country Music.” Married three times and the father of four children, he remained tied to his birthplace, including a 1982 television visit with his mother in Friars Point, before dying suddenly from an aneurysm while en route to a show in 1993; he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.
