Dream Maker

 

 

Born September 1, 1933 in Friars Point, Mississippi, Harold Lloyd Jenkins, aka Conway Twitty, in April 1982 came to perform at the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum. Arriving at his name from combining two towns in Arkansas and Texas, or from a New York City restaurant manager with the name who served in the Army with Jenkins, either way, the rest is history.
My brother Lewis, was in the early beginnings of his radio DJ career at WDSR in Lake City, the Army Quonset hunt on the banks of Alligator Lake. As a disc jockey, Lewis was able to garner free entry to concerts, along with back stage passes.
Twitty at the time was twelve years beyond his great hit of "Hello Darling" and in 1982, looking a bit on the tired side after some fifty chart topping songs.
As Lewis and I made our way backstage to meet the legend, I did not quite know what to expect, meeting the man who had just came out with the hit, Slow Hand. A few of the select who were thus honored to meet him in the little room sat and waited. Emerging from the side door, not what I expected to see, but a Harold Jenkins type of guy, in an ordinary, non-sequined jacket with "Conway" simply embroidered. Hair of gray in disarray. Cigarettes and lighter. Wrinkles. Low, raspy voice. Could this be the same man to whom the women in Elvis Presley fashion threw their clothing to?
We talked a bit, the moment awkward in talking about the wife and kids kind of things to a legend.
I took the photographs for Lewis and we shook hands, thanking Conway for the time and made our way to our seats.
The lights lowered and from the back of the auditorium, the deep, romantic voice was heard, "Hello Darling". It was Conway, adorned in a black sequined suit, trim, fit, hair of jet black, not a wrinkle in sight, strolling down the slow aisle, being mobbed and sobbed over, by adoring ladies and jealous men.
I could not believe this to be the same man we had just met.
Like his final album in 1993, Final Touches, I suppose it was the final touches applied to him backstage that transformed a normal Mississippi boy into Conway Twitty.
Harold Lloyd Jenkins died in June 1993 in Cox South Hospital in Springfield, Missouri from an abdominal aortic aneurysm, aged 59.