The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 35

Paul Twitchell, when we first met in the late '30s, seemed as normal as Saturday afternoon football or carrying home the school-books of the ex-tomboy next door. Even Twitchell's fertile imagination could not have dreamed up what tortuous paths his life would take. Certainly no one in his hometown of Paducah would have predicted that Twitchell would originate a religious cult that would become a multimillion-dollar business with followers in the four corners of the world. As one who held Twitchell in youthful awe because of his success in selling feature articles, it surely did not occur to me that Twitchell would die 10 years before the news reached me, that his hometown newspaper, The Paducah Sun-Democrat, would A multimillion-dollar religious "1 1 cult stands as a reminder of the cfS I mysterious and checkered I 1 existence of Paul Twitchell. rrrJ- 1" 1 By George Tipton Wilson I take no note of it, or that Twitchell's books about Eckankar (the religion he founded) would be advertised in Time magazine only long after his mysterious and checkered existence ended in a Cincinnati hotel room.

Not since Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb graduated from knee-pants had Paducah produced a writer whose words turned up more regularly in print. Ripley's "Believe It or Not" probably in re Above, TwitcheB as a Navy officer. r-jEi Right, Twitchell's first wife and a fit: Hunched over his typewriter, Twitchell perfectly fitted the image of a free-lance writer sending sponse to Twitchell's own publicity drum-beating heralded the amazing fact that he sold an article every day. The Courier-Journal Magazine, where Twitchell's byline appeared with some regularity, increased his purported output, reporting that he had sold "some 1,800 stories and articles in three years." Casting him in a more romantic light, the Magazine went on to describe Twitchell as "a short light-haired citizen who is a jack of all trades. In his relatively few years, he has been, in addition to writer and sailor, a star high-school and college athlete, a physical education director, track coach, swimming coach, college athletic trainer, member of two college faculties, recreation director, professional baseball scout and river GEORGE UPTON WILSON, a Memphis.

free-lance writer, grew up in Smithland, Ky. off manuscripts on every mail train out of Paducah. In some pictures from his Navy days, Twitchell, left in photo at right, is apparently a chief petty officer..