Country music star Reba McEntire sits down with TODAY’s Craig Melvin to talk about helping restore Atoka, Oklahoma — a town near where she grew up. “Mama always said surround yourself with people who are smarter than you and who are good people, and that’s what we have here in Atoka, Oklahoma,” she says.
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Beautiful story that reveals Reba McEntire’s kindness
Conway Twitty’s Grandson Reveals Decades-Old Story About Reba McEntire’s Generosity in Singer’s Final Days
Tre Twitty, the grandson of Conway Twitty, recently met Reba McEntire for the first time, giving him the opportunity to share with the world a beautiful story that reveals McEntire’s kindness toward her country music family. The singer, explains Twitty — who is also one-half of Twitty and Lynn with Loretta Lynn’s granddaughter Tayla Lynn — allowed his grandfather’s family to be able to say their goodbyes before Conway Twitty died in 1993.
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Via his duo’s Facebook page, Tre Twitty explains that after his grandfather collapsed on his bus in Branson, Mo., on June 4, 1993, and was hospitalized in nearby Springfield, Tre’s father, Michael, and his siblings needed to get from Nashville to Springfield as quickly as possible to be by their dying father’s side. So, he called a friend.
“My father, Michael, got a hold of Reba McEntire in the middle of the night and told her the situation,” Tre Twitty writes. “Reba said ‘Go to the airport, my plane is waiting, take it as long as you need it. I’ll call my pilot now.’ My dad went and got on Reba’s plane and flew to Springfield. They all got there and got their chances to say their goodbyes before Poppy passed on the morning of June 5th. Later that day they all flew back to Nashville on Reba’s plane, their world forever changed.”
When Michael Twitty called McEntire to discuss what they owed her for the use of the plane, Tre Twitty shares, “Reba said, ‘Your daddy took me on tour and gave me $5,000 a night when I wasn’t worth $500, you don’t owe me anything. I loved him.’”
Twitty says in his Facebook post that he’s been “waiting for 26 years” to meet McEntire and thank her for her generosity. “I’m publicly telling this story because she is far too classy and modest to ever mention it,” he adds.
“Country Music is all about family,” Twitty concludes. “Thank you Reba for being there for mine.”
As Twitty and Lynn, Tre and Talya have been touring to honor their grandparents with a show full of their songs and their family’s stories. According to her granddaughter, Loretta Lynn put down her foot as only she can and insisted that the act be billed as something other than a tribute.
“It’s actually called A Salute to Conway and Loretta because Memaw says that she’s not dead yet, and that’s what a tribute show is,” Tayla Lynn tells Moose Jaw Today. “She said she ain’t having it.”
