Conway Twitty

Harold Lloyd Jenkins (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), better known by his stage name Conway Twitty, was an American singer and songwriter. Initially a part of the 1950s rockabilly scene, Twitty was most notable as a country music performer. From 1971 to 1976, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. He was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.

Twitty made frequent use of romantic and sentimental themes in his songs. Due to his following being compared to a religious revival, comedian Jerry Clower nicknamed Twitty "The High Priest of Country Music", the eventual title of his 33rd studio album. Twitty achieved stardom with hit songs like "Hello Darlin'", "You've Never Been This Far Before", and "Linda on My Mind". Twitty topped Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart 40 times in his career, a record that stood for two decades until it was surpassed by George Strait. He also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "It's Only Make Believe”, a song he wrote, along with 11 of his Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topping hits.

Twitty was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins on September 1, 1933 in Friars Point, Mississippi. The Jenkins family was of Welsh descent. He was named by his great-uncle, after his favorite silent movie actor Harold Lloyd. The Jenkins family moved to Helena, Arkansas, when Jenkins was 10 years old. In Helena, Jenkins performed on radio when he was 10, and he formed his first singing group, the Phillips County Ramblers when he was 12, and they had their own show on the local radio station KFFA every Saturday morning. He preached at church revivals when he was a teenager.

He attended high school and spent his formative years in Tallulah, Louisiana, graduating from Tallulah High School.

Jenkins was a baseball player with a batting average of .450 when he graduated from high school, and he was offered a contract with the Philadelphia Phillies in the mid-1950s. He worked for a few months for International Harvester before accepting the Phillies offer. However, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the Far East, during which time he organized a group called the Cimmarons to entertain his fellow soldiers. The Phillies renewed their offer when he returned home, but Twitty had by then become more interested in pursuing a music career.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.