Conway Twitty’s final night: collapse after Branson show, death at 59
Country music legend Conway Twitty died on June 5, 1993, hours after collapsing on his tour bus following a June 4 performance at the Jim Stafford Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He was rushed to Cox South Hospital in Springfield and died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was 59.
According to contemporaneous and retrospective reports, Twitty became ill after the Branson show and was taken for emergency surgery in Springfield, where he was pronounced dead early the next morning. Country star Loretta Lynn, his longtime duet partner, was at the same hospital because her husband was recovering from heart surgery; she briefly saw Twitty as he arrived.
Twitty—born Harold Lloyd Jenkins in 1933—first rose to global fame in 1958 with the pop hit “It’s Only Make Believe,” before moving decisively into country by the late 1960s. Across his career he topped Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart 40 times, including with signatures like “Hello Darlin’,” “Linda on My Mind,” and “Desperado Love,” a record that stood for decades.
His duet work with Lynn set a high-water mark for country pairs, beginning with their 1971 No. 1 “After the Fire Is Gone” and continuing through multiple CMA Duo of the Year wins. In the 1980s, Twitty built “Twitty City” in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a public-facing compound that became a landmark for fans; the site was sold to Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1994 and is now known as Trinity Music City.
Twitty was still recording up to his final weeks. His posthumous album Final Touches—tracked from March 1992 through May 1993—was released on August 31, 1993.
News of his death reverberated through Nashville as the industry prepared for Fan Fair (now CMA Fest). Radio stations and fans highlighted core songs such as “Hello Darlin’,” “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” and “That’s My Job,” emphasizing both his chart success and his conversational vocal style that defined a generation of country storytelling.
Twitty was buried under his birth name, Harold L. Jenkins, in Gallatin, Tennessee. His influence remains visible in the phrasing and repertoire choices of modern traditionalists and in the standard set by his duets with Lynn. For many listeners, the enduring takeaway of his final night is straightforward: after nearly four decades on the road, Conway Twitty was still doing what he always did—finishing a show, boarding the bus, and pointing toward the next stage.