cover image My Dad’s Funnier than Your Dad: Growing Up with Tim Conway in the Funniest House in America

My Dad’s Funnier than Your Dad: Growing Up with Tim Conway in the Funniest House in America

Kelly Conway. Lyons, $26.95 (264p) ISBN 978-1-4930-5769-6

In this heartfelt debut, Conway writes a loving tribute to her father, the late comedy legend Tim Conway (1933–2019). The oldest of six children and only daughter of the famous comedian, she gives readers an intimate look at Conway’s life, revealing a man who measured up to the ones he played on-screen, as Ensign Parker in the ’60s sitcom McHale’s Navy and as a regular on the Carol Burnett Show. “Dad was exactly the same person you remember from television,” she writes, “supportive, loving, and yes, a hell of a lot of fun.” She recalls how he was the ringleader of hilarious family escapades, both gentle and protective, and, above all, her “number-one fan.” But, as she relates in heartbreaking detail, their home life wasn’t always perfect; after her parents divorced when she was 17 and Tim married Charlene Beatty (Carol Burnett’s secretary), Conway and her father slowly drifted apart. This estrangement came to a head when she became embroiled in a battle against Charlene to get legal conservatorship of her ailing father in his final years (which she ultimately lost). Even in recalling these darker chapters, Conway never loses sight of the unshakable love that bonded her to her father, and the laughter he gave the world. Fans will be captivated. (Nov.)