Conway Twitty died 25 years ago today: How his legacy lives on

Karen Grigsby | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Loretta Lynn talks Conway Twitty, her start in country music Country legend Loretta Lynn talks about Conway Twitty, her start in country music and more.

Twenty-five years ago today, country music lost a true legend when singer-songwriter Conway Twitty died. He was just 59.

Twitty's impact on country music can't be overstated. He had 41 Billboard No. 1 singles on both country and pop charts. That's more than Elvis Presley, more than George Jones, more than the Beatles, The Tennessean wrote the day after Twitty's death.

Here are six things to know about the "Hello Darlin' " singer and why his legacy still lives on in more ways than one.

Twitty was on his way to Nashville when he collapsed

On June 4, 1993, Twitty was on his way to Fan Fair (now called the CMA Music Festival) in Nashville after performing earlier that day in Missouri. He collapsed on his bus and was taken to the hospital, where he died the next day of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Loretta Lynn saw Twitty entering the hospital

In a strange twist, Loretta Lynn — Twitty's frequent duet partner and with whom he scored several hits, such as "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" — saw Twitty briefly as he entered Cox South Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. Lynn's husband, O.V., had been recuperating at the hospital after having heart surgery the month before. Lynn stayed the night with Dee Henry, Twitty's wife.

'The Best Friend a Song Ever Had'

Known in the music industry as "The Best Friend a Song Ever Had," Twitty had a career that spanned five decades. He first found success at Sun Studios in Memphis with the No. 1 hit "It's Only Make Believe" in 1958. (The song has been covered by everyone from Glen Campbell to Fiona Apple.) With his versatile voice, he eventually made the shift from rock to country.

"Conway's one of the greatest singers that I ever heard," Lynn said in 2014. "... I haven't heard anybody sing like Conway Twitty since he's been gone. A lot of people's tried to, but nobody ever gets it just right."

He threw out the first pitch at the first Sounds home game

Twitty was a lifelong baseball fan and was even scouted by the Philadelphia Phillies as a teenager. As an investor, he played a major role in bringing the Nashville Sounds here. On April 26, 1978, Twitty threw out the first pitch of the Sounds' very first home opener against the Savannah Braves at Greer Stadium.

'Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty'

The animated TV show "Family Guy" for years has used cutaways to Twitty performances as a kind of diversion for main character Peter Griffin.

Twitty was an entrepreneur, too

Aside from his amazing music career, Twitty was a businessman, too. He pitched Twitty Burgers and Twitty birdseed, and he and Lynn owned United Talent, a Music Row booking company. In 1982, he opened Twitty City, an $8 million development that included homes for the singer and his four children, a museum, a gift shop and an auditorium. In the late 1980s, though, Twitty began selling off his business holdings to simplify his life. "All I want is that everything I got anything to do with is on one sheet of paper and I can look at it and understand it myself and I don't need some attorney to explain it to me," he said in 1992.