The auctioneer’s voice cut through the chilly October air as Conway Twitty’s four adult children sat among crowds of strangers at Twitty City. They held numbered paddles and competed with collectors to reclaim their father’s belongings. Fans wept in the stands while Joni and Kathy struggled to hide their tears.
Harold L Jenkins, the legendary country singer known as Conway Twitty, died suddenly on June 5 1993 from an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 59 and had been touring relentlessly to secure his family’s future. Nine days later his will entered probate in Sumner County. That document written before his 1987 marriage to Dee Henry left everything to his four children and his mother. Tennessee law gave his widow a one third elective share which she claimed.
A family friend recalled “The children just wanted to keep their father’s legacy whole but the law forced a public sale.”
Michael Kathy Joni Lee and Jimmy tried to buy out Dee Henry’s one third interest at the court appraised value. She rejected the valuation and petitioned for a public liquidation to maximize cash returns. The court approved. New York based Guernsey’s auction house arrived at Twitty City to tag and catalog more than 2000 lots for a three day sale called “Conway Twitty The Legend.”
Twitty City was far more than a tourist stop. The nine acre complex in Hendersonville included a colonial style brick home for Conway and separate houses inside the gated grounds so his mother and children could live beside him. The auction sold off that life piece by piece from guitars gold records vintage cars and sequined stage suits down to his bedroom furniture eyeglasses favorite armchair family greeting cards and worn leather stage boots.
Conway’s children had to pay inflated collector prices just to salvage pieces of their own childhood. As the gavel fell several winning bidders walked over after the sale and quietly handed small personal items and keepsakes back to the singer’s daughters without asking for repayment.
The three day personal property auction raised more than 1.2 million dollars. The following month the compound itself was auctioned to the Trinity Broadcasting Network which converted it into a religious television complex called Trinity Music City. Conway’s mother and children had to pack up and move out of the brick homes he built to keep them together. They walked away with only the few personal pieces they had bought back with numbered paddles and the small treasures strangers placed back into their hands under the auction tent.