Pat Conroy, the beloved author of "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides" and other best-sellers who drew upon his bruising childhood and the vistas of South Carolina and became one of the ...

As he lay dying, Pat Conroy's family eased him from this life into the next by reading poems, playing country music and singing to him. "We did sing the Marine Corps Hymn," his sister Kathy Harvey ...

Pat Conroy has always sought refuge in books. As a child growing up in a military family, Conroy learned from his mother that books could be his constant companions as the family shuttled from Marine ...