Pat Conroy author of 'Prince of Tides' dead at 70: Reports
Date
3/10/2016 5:13:26 AM
By Bill Trott
Pat Conroy who turned the tales of hispainfully dysfunctional family into best-selling novels such as"The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides" died on Friday atthe age of 70 his publishing company said.
Conroy who had announced in a Feb. 15 Facebook post that hehad pancreatic cancer died at his home in Beaufort SouthCarolina surrounded by family and loved ones said ToddDoughty a spokesman for Doubleday.
"The water is wide and he has now passed over" said hiswife novelist Cassandra King Conroy.
Much of Conroy's work was inspired by a dark muse - hisfather U.S. Marine Colonel Donald Conroy. The elder Conroy wasa fighter pilot who fought in four wars - World War Two theKorean War the Vietnam War and the long-running conflict withhis family. He was a tyrant who beat his wife and children.
"I remember hating him even when I was in diapers" Conroywrote in the prologue of "The Death of Santini" the memoir thatput to rest his feelings about his father as well as serving asa postscript to the novel "The Great Santini."
Hollywood loved the emotional aspects of Conroy's works and"The Water Is Wide" "The Prince of Tides" and "Lords ofDiscipline" as well as "The Great Santini" were all made intosuccessful movies.
Conroy once told People magazine that his books were aneffort to explain his life to himself which was a complicatedundertaking.
He was one of seven children in a family that due to hisfather's military assignments moved 23 times before he was 18.
Conroy's mother did not know how to deal with his fathermuch beyond designating hiding places for the children to run towhen a rampage started. As the oldest child Conroy often triedto intervene when trouble started which meant that he wouldtook the brunt of his father's cruelty.
Reuters