Robert E. Howard shot himself in June 1936 and his mother died a day or two later; a will naming a friend was reportedly lost, and the Conan rights passed to a nurse's daughter

Robert E. Howard, 30, shot himself on 11 June 1936 outside the family house in Cross Plains, Texas, while his mother, Hester, lay comatose. She died a day or two later (sources give 12 June or two days after), and the two had a double funeral. One fan history says a nurse found a handwritten will leaving everything to his friend Lyndsey Tyson, that Howard's father took it, and that it was never seen again^†. Tyson did not come forward in probate. A Texas judge closed the estate after nine months to a year and gave the rights to Dr. I. M. Howard as nearest kin. Dr. Howard died about 1944 and left everything to Alla Ray Kuykendall, daughter of the doctor who ran his practice: a few thousand dollars, a trunk of manuscripts and the copyrights. Fan Glenn Lord became literary agent in about 1959. In 1982 the royalties, "in the thousands" a year, went to Kuykendall Morris and her mother, neither of whom had known Howard. She left the rights to Jack and Barbara Baum. Paradox bought Conan in 2002, and Funcom bought the rights in 2021 at an undisclosed price.