With news of Horton’s Furniture closing, many wonder: What happened to those twins?

With the news that Horton’s Furniture is closing, some Wichitans automatically thought of the Horton’s twins who advertised the store for three decades.

Except in actuality, there were no twins. It was only Robin Ragland Smith playing the part of twins advertising the store’s furniture.

“I would talk to my other self,” Smith said of being on camera.

People would ask her how she knew where to look.

“Well,” Smith would reply, “she’s the same height as I am so . . . .”

Others were convinced Smith had a twin.

“Many times in the grocery store, people would actually argue with me,” Smith said.

They’d make comments about how her twin was taller or heavier.

“Their imaginations just went wild insisting that I was a twin.”

Sometimes, Smith would play along when people asked where her twin was.

“Oh, I left her at home.”

Or, if she knew the person, “Oh, she’s such a (witch), I had to leave her at home.”

Once, a woman called Horton’s asking for the twins’ numbers, explaining that “I used to babysit those girls when they were little.”

A singer, Smith’s television advertising career began when she was a contestant in a competition when the “Lawrence Welk Show” was in town.

She was first runner up and was invited to be on John Froome’s “Game-O-Names” game show as a result. That led to a commercial for men’s cologne, and then she auditioned for Horton’s.

When Smith saw herself on the audition tape, she said, “I thought, oh, my God, this is a failure, and they’re never going to pick me.”

But they did, and it resulted in 30 years of work.

A lot of the commercials were shot at KAKE-TV, and Smith got to know Froome, general manager Martin Umansky, anchor Jack Hicks and director Jim Atkinson who “got this brilliant idea of making me twins.”

“Jim would seamlessly put it together.”

Hicks had the idea of making Smith an anchor, which she said in hindsight “probably would have been a better career for me.”

She opted for commercials, though, and radio work on B98.

Smith said she always was careful about which commercials she appeared in so they didn’t conflict with her Horton’s work.

That and her longevity are why she was crushed when new owners took over the store and unceremoniously let her go.

Smith, who is mostly retired except for some voice-over work, wrote a Facebook post after hearing the Horton’s news Monday and explained how sad the whole situation made her. In addition to offering support, a lot of people had fun and funny comments, too.

“I had a crush on you and your twin sister,” one man said.

“As did many of us lads,” another man said, followed by another who asked “who didn’t?”

Radio personality Phil Thompson said, “You will always be my favorite Horton’s twin, Robin!”

A woman said, “I loved those commercials! You were so good in them… BOTH of you!”

Another woman said, with a winking emoji, “I did know your twin. I think .....”

The commercials ran from the 1980s to the early 2000s, and almost everyone of a certain age remembers them.

As one person on Facebook put it, Smith was “a classic icon for Horton’s - the only people in the area who didn’t know that didn’t have a television.”

Horton’s Furniture in Wichita to close after almost 80 years