Conversations with the Conroys: Interviews with Pat Conroy and His Family

By Walter Edgar and Nikky Finney

“Portrays a deeply troubled family struggling to survive amidst terrifying abuse . . . a page-turner, as engrossing as any of Conroy’s novels.” —Robert H. Brinkmeyer Jr., University of South Carolina

A New York Times–bestselling author of eleven novels and memoirs, Pat Conroy is one of America’s most beloved storytellers and a writer as synonymous with the South Carolina lowcountry as pluff mud or the Palmetto tree. As Conroy’s writings have been rooted in autobiography more often than not, his readers have come to know and appreciate much about the once-secret dark familial history that has shaped Conroy’s life and work.

Conversations with the Conroys opens further the discussion of the Conroy family through five revealing interviews conducted in 2014 with Pat Conroy and four of his six siblings: brothers Mike, Jim, and Tim and sister Kathy. In confessional and often comic dialogs, the Conroys openly discuss the perils of being raised by their larger-than-life parents, USMC fighter pilot Col. Don Conroy (the Great Santini) and southern belle Peggy Conroy (née Peek); the complexities of having their history of abuse made public by Pat’s books; the tragic death of their youngest brother, Tom; the chasm between them and their sister Carol Ann; and the healing, redemptive embrace they have come to find over time in one another. With good humor and often-striking candor, these interviews capture the Conroys as authentic and indeed proud South Carolinians, not always at ease with their place in literary lore, but nonetheless deeply supportive of Pat in his life and writing.

“[A] small gem of a book . . . For fans of Conroy’s books, this is a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781611176322

Book preview

Introduction

HOME AT LAST

The human mind is a fearful instrument of adaptation, and in nothing is this more clearly shown than in its mysterious powers of resilience, self-protection, and self-healing. Unless an event completely shatters the order of one’s life, the mind, if it has youth and health and time enough, accepts the inevitable and gets itself ready for the next happening like a grimly dutiful American tourist who, or arriving at a new town, looks around him, takes his bearings, and says, Well, where do I go from here?

Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again

For more than forty years I have plied my trade as historian in general—and historian of South Carolina specifically. While some in my profession have spurned local history as too provincial for their self-proclaimed cosmopolitanism, there are those of us who understand what John Adams meant when he said that to understand the American Revolution and American history, one needed to look first at local institutions. And, although the second president did not specifically say so, he implied that local history in context could help explain a larger story. That is the manner in which I approached writing this introduction to this collection of interviews with Pat Conroy and four of his siblings.

Each of these interviews needs to be looked at separately—and then with all the others as a whole. For each one in sequence reveals a bit more about Pat Conroy, his siblings, and their relationships to their parents, Frances Peggy Peek and Col. Donald Conroy, aka the Great Santini. The conversations also let us follow the collective Conroy journeys of discovery to some place that they could at last consider home.

I first met Pat Conroy not in person, but through the observation of others. The first time I ever set eyes on Pat was in 1965, when my Davidson Wildcats were in Charleston to play the Citadel. The Wildcats were fantastic that year and trounced the Bulldogs 100–81. After the game, I saw one of the Citadel guards run over and speak to Davidson’s All-American Fred Hetzel: just a few words and then a handshake. Fast forward a decade or so. Gene Brooker, one of my friends and a classmate of Pat’s, was stricken with Guillain-Barré syndrome. Gene was hospitalized for months, and during that time Pat visited on numerous occasions to sit by his bedside for hours on end. At this point in his life, Pat Conroy had already hit the big time. This would have been a PR flack’s dream: Noted writer flies to the bedside of stricken classmate with appropriate saccharine photographs. It didn’t happen. I learned about these visits not from Pat, but from Gene’s sister-in-law from Mobile. She and I had grown up together, and if there ever were a cynic, Prather Pipes Brooker was one. She called me to tell me about what Pat had been doing for Gene. In part because she said some in the media were beating up on Pat for being brash and insensitive about the feelings of others. And she wanted me to set the record straight in South Carolina about what a truly gentle man Pat Conroy was.

Over the years that followed, Pat’s and my paths crossed at various meetings, but it was not until about twenty-five years ago that I had the pleasure of getting to know and appreciate the gentle man my friend had described. Since then, we have had numerous public and private conversations. Pat’s brother Tim arranged one of the public conversations—a benefit for the South Carolina Autism Society held at the South Carolina State Museum. Afterward Pat signed books for hours. And, as is his custom, he never just autographs a book. He has a conversation with every person in line. At our One Book, One Columbia conversation in front of a crowd of nearly two thousand, a transcript of which is included in this book, Pat signed books and spoke with fans until 1:00 the next morning. This was Pat the extrovert and Pat the gentle man having a personal word with everyone who placed a book in front of him because he never forgets that readers and not critics make the lasting careers of writers. A Pat Conroy signing is always a master class in reader appreciation, and any young writer with ambitions for her or his future should pay close attention to how Conroy treats his audience.

Thus the context for my writing this introduction is based on my having read every book Pat Conroy has written, attended more public readings and presentations than I can remember, and on getting to know the private man. I had known the Conroy siblings other than Tim only through Pat.

In the conversations transcribed in this book, I hope that the reader will see and appreciate the private Pat Conroy. Most folks know the larger-than-life public Pat, always generous with his time and his words, but the private Pat is someone every bit as special.

Since 2000 I have participated in hundreds of radio interviews and conversations. It is not easy to translate the emotion and body language that accompany a person’s comments. For that reason I generally insist that guests on my program come to the SCETV-Radio studio, so that I can read their faces and their body language and not just listen to their words. Tone of voice can mask feelings, but clenched fists, crossed arms, rolling eyes, grins, grimaces, and tears cannot.

When USC Press director Jonathan Haupt and I broached the subject of a Conroy family interview with Pat, he wasn’t sure that Tim, Kathy, Mike, or Jim would participate. And, if all of them showed up, he was unsure of what would occur. After all, it would be the first time that the five siblings were willing to share with a nonfamily member their reactions to growing up with the Great Santini. While there was banter and joshing, there was a palpable tension in the studio on February 28, 2014. This was not a conversation that was easy for any of them. But in that studio, it was the gentle Pat who was there to support his family as equal parts kind, thoughtful older brother and sage tribal elder. That same Pat was on stage for the conversation held several months later at the South Carolina Book Festival in front of hundreds and again in a more intimate conversation with two of his brothers in Charleston following his induction into the Citadel Athletics Hall of Fame.

During the course of these conversations, it became apparent that not only Pat but all the Conroy siblings had spent a greater part of their lives seeking some sort of home. Through the impact of Pat’s writing on them and their parents, especially their father, and their discussions with each other over the years, they appear to have found that home—a physical and an emotional one.

There is no doubt that Thomas Wolfe had a remarkable impact on Conroy’s writing—not only in his style but also in wrestling with the problem of home. When Pat was fifteen, the family moved to Beaufort, South Carolina. It was, he recalled, their twenty-third move, and he told his mother ‘Mom, I ain’t movin’ again.’ . . . And she said, ‘Son, why don’t you make Beaufort your hometown?’ The teenage Pat resolved to do just that. As Pat often says, he latched on to Beaufort like a barnacle. But it took decades for the Conroy family as a whole to realize that, even though they were a peripatetic military family, Beaufort, South Carolina, was their home. Over the years it came to symbolize home for all the Conroys even if it were literally and consistently home only for some of them.

Beaufort was the scene of the event that triggered Pat’s writing The Great Santini. It was an evening that Kathy, Jim, Tim, and Mike remembered down to the last detail—even the movie they had been to see that evening. With the publication of The Great Santini in 1976, life in the Conroy household became public knowledge. Kathy spoke for them all when she said that they had a lifetime of secrets, and all of a sudden when you’re reading your life in a book, it’s not so secret anymore. Chillingly all agreed that Pat had not exaggerated the physical and mental abuse with which they had grown up. If you knew the truth, said Jim, it was much worse than the book.

Sharing their experiences with the rest of the world was not easy. Nevertheless all admitted that they loved the book when they read it. It was their story, and their father’s reaction to it helped in reconciling him to his children.

Growing up with the Great Santini was often painful, but the siblings always had each other. They developed a sense of black humor to deal with their dysfunctional family. Sister Carol did not participate in the reunion conversations, but she is often the subject of them. However, she still maintains a connection with her sister and brothers and appears for weddings and funerals. She’s a good southern girl, said Mike, no matter what.

The Conroys might have wondered about whether or not Beaufort was home, but when they gathered for brother Tom’s funeral, they found out. Tim said the Conroys were blessed to be from South Carolina, because nobody rallies behind a family like South Carolinians do in time of need. Food, flowers, and a crowded church were tangible signs of the community’s acceptance: ‘your neighbors’—that you really didn’t know were your neighbors, all of a sudden they’re on your doorstep. To help you through this.

In these conversations Pat Conroy, Kathy Conroy Harvey, Jim Conroy, Tim Conroy, and Mike Conroy reveal that over the years in dealing with their childhood, their parents, and each other, they have at last found a home. In the opening sentence to The Prince of Tides, Pat wrote: My wound is geography, it is also my anchorage, my port of call. . . . The same could be said for his siblings. That geography, that anchorage, that port of call is unquestionably Beaufort, South Carolina.

WALTER EDGAR

An Evening with

Pat Conroy

This conversation took place on February 27, 2014, in Columbia’s Township Auditorium before an audience of more than two thousand. It was the keynote event for the city’s One Book, One Columbia program, which had selected Pat’s My Reading Life as its book for 2014. The interview later aired on SCETV-Radio’s Walter Edgar’s Journal.

WALTER EDGAR: Pat, we’ve done

Reviews for Conversations with the Conroys

[susan0316 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book contained several conversations with Pat Conroy and his brothers and sister. I found the interviews very interesting because I've read all of Pat's books several times and his family discussed his books and how close they were to their reality growing up. It was very interesting to compare their memories of growing up to the stories in Pat's books. Despite a very tough upbringing, its very evident that they love each other deeply. Great book for Pat Conroy fans.