The iron gates of Twitty City stood silent under a gray dawn on June 5 1993 as hundreds of fans pressed their faces against the bars. They had come with flowers and candles for the man who had never turned them away. Inside the compound the houses Conway Twitty had built for his mother and children sat empty waiting for a bus that would never arrive.
Just hours earlier the 59 year old singer had walked off the stage at the Jim Stafford Theatre in Branson Missouri after finishing his final concert. He had felt tired and suffered from stomach pain all evening but he kept a lifelong rule.
Keeping to a lifelong rule of putting the paying audience first he stayed under the stage lights and delivered the full program without letting the crowd see his discomfort.
Then he boarded his tour bus for the overnight trip home to Tennessee.
Waiting at the end of that highway was the nine acre compound Conway had opened in 1982 after pouring millions from decades on the road into the property. He named the street address One Country Music Circle and invited the ticket buying public into his front yard. While other stars built high walls for privacy Conway built separate houses inside the grounds for his mother Velma and his four children Michael Kathy Joni and Jimmy. He also opened the gates to hundreds of thousands of fans every year often walking out himself in casual clothes to sign autographs and talk with visitors. Every December he turned the compound into a holiday attraction with a massive Christmas light display that drew families from across Middle Tennessee.
The bus never reached Hendersonville. A few hours from home Conway collapsed on the floor of the coach in severe pain. He was rushed to Cox South Hospital in Springfield Missouri where doctors performed hours of emergency surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm before he passed away in the early hours of June 5.
That morning thousands of fans gathered quietly along the iron gates of Twitty City leaving flowers and candles outside the grounds their host would never walk again. Behind those gates however the financial structure supporting the compound quickly unraveled. Conway had still been working under a 1968 will written long before the complex existed or his 1987 marriage to Delores Dee Henry took place. Tennessee law entitled his widow to claim a one third elective share of the entire estate sparking disputes among heirs. With the estate owing millions and no single heir able to buy out the others the court ordered the property liquidated.
In 1994 auctioneers pitched a large white tent on the grounds to sell off Conway’s stage wardrobe vehicles household furniture and personal items before putting the real estate itself on the block. The Trinity Broadcasting Network purchased the nine acre complex and converted it into a Christian television production campus renamed Trinity Music City. The family members who had lived inside the compound vacated the residences Conway had built for them.
For two decades the network used the auditorium for television tapings and concerts while keeping part of the main house open to visitors until formal guided tours ended in 2016. Then on December 9 2023 an EF 3 tornado tore through Hendersonville and twisted the roof and framing of the unoccupied brick mansion. Weeks later the network submitted early redevelopment plans proposing to demolish the storm damaged residence to make room for senior housing and expanded production offices.
In January 2024 Conway’s daughter Joni Ryles and local preservationists spoke out before the Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
This house is my father’s legacy and we must preserve it for the fans he loved
she said. Following her opposition and pushback from city leaders the network revised their blueprint reducing the number of planned housing units to spare and restore the original two story brick home inside the walls of the former family compound. The building still stands today a weathered monument to the man who never built a wall between himself and his audience.