Conway performed at the Vermont State Fair in Rutland, Vermont for the first and only time on September 5, 1986. He was scheduled to return exactly 7 years later on September 5, 1993 - the concert I planned to attend - but it wasn't meant to be.
His appearance 35 years ago this week made headlines not only for another stellar, sold out performance, but also for the way he went above and beyond for a fan.
Rutland resident Gladys Bride was a lifelong fan of Conway's and desperately wanted to attend her idol's show, but she was paralyzed from the waist down and her family didn't know how they could possibly make her dream come true. Her daughter Judy decided to contact Ed Congdon, a local farmer who worked for the Regional Ambulance Service as a paramedic and manned the first aid station at the fairgrounds. Judy asked if it would be possible to have her mother transported to the fair in an ambulance and then put her in a wheelchair for the concert. Ed discussed it with fair officials and was given approval. The Poultney Rescue Squad volunteered its ambulance.
Upon arriving at the fairgrounds something happened that no one expected. Conway himself stepped onto the ambulance, greeting Gladys with "Hello darlin'..."
Can you even imagine?!?!?!
Gladys requested that he perform her favorite, I'd Love to Lay You Down, to which he replied, "Sure, honey, I'll sing it," and he kept his promise.
He enthralled the sold out crowd with hit after hit as he did every single night, but on this particular night he gave a seriously ill woman one of the highlights of her life. Sadly, Gladys passed away not long after.
Stories like this are just one of the many, many reasons I am so proud to be a Conway Twitty devotee. He was as beautiful on the inside as he was on the outside. The world would be a much better place if there were more people like him in it.
Today would've been Conway's 88th birthday. He was taken from us far too soon but his life was such a blessing.
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