A love so warm and true Local woman has house filled with Conway Twitty memorabilia

By Claudette Olivier
Church Point News
Editor
Late country singer Conway Twitty once crooned that he had Linda on his mind, and Twitty is certainly on the mind of at least one woman named Linda.
Linda Darbonne, of Branch, said, “I always say my favorite Conway Twitty song is ‘Linda On My Mind’ because my name’s in it, but it’s just too hard (to pick a favorite). He had too many good songs to pick just one. To me — some of his best songs — you never heard them on the radio.”
She continued, “I’ve been a Conway Twitty fan since I was about 10 years old. My older sister — Geneva — I used to listen to him with her. She kind of got me started on listening to him. I don’t remember which of his songs I heard first, but the one I remember the most is ’15 Years Ago.’ My sister had a ’57 Chevrolet, and we would listen to the song on an 8-track.”
Darbonne’s love of the singer only grew from there, and today she has an entire two bedroom home devoted to her ever-expanding collection of Conway Twitty memorabilia. A sign above the home’s front porch reads “Conway Twitty Museum.”
“I didn’t start collecting — not this much anyway — until after he passed away in 1993 at the age of 59,” Darbonne said. “I had some records and all that, but I didn’t really start collecting ’til after he passed away.”
During the last 25 years, Darbonne has amassed a countless number of memorabilia items, and Darbonne estimates that she has about $300,000 invested in her collection.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have kept inventory — now it’s way too much,” Darbonne said, laughing.
Many of Darbonne’s collectibles are authentic pieces purchased from an estate sale hosted the year after Twitty’s passing. Her collection includes handwritten song lyrics from “Bad Girl;” a guitar; a Twitty lamp; a menu from the Twitty Burger restaurant; shirts from Twitty’s line of western wear that was carried by K-Mart; coats from Twitty’s tours; souvenir items from Twitty City, a country music entertainment complex Twitty owned in Tennessee; photos Darbonne took at Twitty concerts she attended in south Louisiana; and posters from movies Twitty starred in during the 1960s, including Platinum High School and College Confidential. Twitty was offered a contract to play baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies before he was drafted into the U.S. Army, and Darbonne even has one of Twitty’s baseball trophies.
One of Darbonne’s most expensive pieces is a blue embroidered vest worn by Twitty at a performance or for a promotional photo, and the garment cost Darbonne $3,000. She also owns some of the awards Twitty received for his music, including his Country Music Association Award for the song “Hello Darlin.”
Darbonne said one of her most treasured items is a handwritten note for a speech Twitty gave when he was made an honorary chief of the Choctaw Indian Nation in the 1970s. The speech is written on a piece of yellow paper with a caricature of Twitty as popular Looney Toons cartoon character Tweety Bird.
The following is the speech in its entirety: “How can I express how I feel. I guess the same way I do when I write a song, simply by saying what’s in my heart and on my mind. I am eternally grateful to my God for giving me the talent to do what I’d rather do more than anything else in the world. I am totally flattered but forever appreciative that my neighbors, the people of the Choctaw Indian Nation, have chosen me as ‘Honorary Chief.’ This honor has been bestowed on one other white man, Roy Rogers back in 1955. I can’t believe it’s happened to me. It’s a great feeling and will live within me always. CT.”
Darbonne said she plans to keep expanding her collection, and a stack of boxes and envelopes of items yet to be opened took up place in the museum on a recent day.
“A lot of people who know about the museum — if they have stuff to sell — they’ll get in touch with me,” she said. “I also find stuff online. I buy most of the big stuff like the awards at online auctions, and I get the smaller stuff on Ebay.”
“I’m running out of rooms — I don’t know what I’ll do,” Darbonne added, laughing.
What keeps her collecting?
“I love his music so much,” she said. “It’s just something to keep his memory alive, just to keep things for people to come and see. I know they have a lot of Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn fans in south Louisiana, and I know there is no other Conway Twitty Museum around, so this is like the only one. I do it in his honor to keep his memory alive. No other singer had the hits he had and had his voice.”
Darbonne said she gets about 20-30 visitors a year, and visits are by appointment only.
When Twitty’s grandson Tre Twitty performed in Louisiana last year, Darbonne said about 200 people came by to see her collection, including Twitty’s grandson.
For more about the museum or to schedule a tour, visit the Linda’s Conway Collection Museum page on Facebook.