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Remembering Pat Conroy: a Conversation with his Family

Pat Conroy

Pat Conroy, the beloved author of The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides,  died March 4,  among his family, at home in Beaufort, S.C. He was 70 years old. He had announced his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer in early February.

In 2014, Conroy recorded two remarkable episodes of Walter Edgar's Journal, the second of which "Pat Conroy and Family - The Death of Santini"  will be rebroadcast this week.

  In his 2013 memoir, The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and his Son,  author Pat Conroy admits that his father, Don, is the basis of abusive fighter pilot he created for the title role of his novel, The Great Santini, and that his mother, Peg, and his brothers and sisters have all served as models for characters in The Prince of Tides and his other novels. Now, for the first time, Pat gathers with four of his surviving siblings, Kathy, Tim, Mike, and Jim, to talk about the intersection of “real life” and Pat’s fiction, and what it was like to grow up with “the Great Santini” as a father.

A transcription of this conversation, and others, has been published as Conversations with the Conroys: Interviews with Pat Conroy and His Family (USC Press, 2016)

All Stations: Fri, Mar 18, 12 pm | News Stations: Sun, Mar 20, 4 pm

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