Growing Up with Laughter

Kelly Conway remembers stories about her dad, comedian Tim Conway

By Melonie Magruder Photos courtesy of Kelly Conway

KELLY AND HER DAD, 1992

His comedic timing was impeccable. What was even funnier than making his audience laugh, was when comedian Tim Conway would make those around him laugh and break character. His daughter, longtime Malibu resident Kelly Conway, wrote a memoir to share some of the stories, and then, at his death, some of her heartbreak.

“Everyone always told me to write a book,” she said, “but I always said ‘no’ until I truly realized after he passed away just how loved he was. So … I wrote a book.”

Tim was one of the most successful funnymen on television. With her dad a series regular on the hugely popular “The Carol Burnett Show,” Kelly, one of six children (the only girl with five younger brothers), was part of a loud family whose weekends were filled with pool parties among Hollywood elite, skiing, and hanging with friends at Surfrider Beach. It was a life filled with love and laughter.

“If we had to go to the grocery store, he would put all six of us in the station wagon and take us to Gelson’s,” she recalled. “Then he’d give each of us a cart and leave us in one aisle while he went to the next. He would throw the groceries over and we’d each try to catch the most in our own cart to win $5.”

So, a can of soup, a loaf of bread, and a bag of chips went flying, and the kids would all “scramble” to win the prize.

“Everything was a game,” Kelly recalled. “Nothing was competitive. We’d just go spend money on a gallon of ice cream with six spoons.”

KELLY AND HER DAD, 1974

Her dad set up a “swim meet” in the pool and made lanes with garden hoses to hold relay races. He made trophies with old swim fin covered in tinfoil nailed to pieces of wood.

“Now that I’m grown up, I realize he was just trying to keep us busy,” Kelly said with a laugh.

She wrote about the adventures of her childhood in her book, “My Dad’s Funnier Than Your Dad: Growing Up with Tim Conway in the Funniest House in America.” She recounted that her childhood in a large Encino house was as normal as one could expect when your father is one of the most popular entertainers on TV.

Tim took his kids to Santa Anita Park {horse racetrack), taught them betting strategies and encouraged them to pick up all the discarded betting slips in hopes that someone threw away a winning ticket (they frequently did). Tim’s kids hooliganed through CBS studios, played hide-and-seek on neighboring soundstages and Kelly cooed over Cher’s outrageous Bob Mackie gowns in the next dressing room. These are just a few of the many adventures Kelly shared.

But Tim also was a man who taught his children the basics of living a life with integrity – if you want money to go spend with your friends for a day at the beach, you should make up a bunch of sandwiches and sell them to hungry beachgoers. If you eat all of grandma Magi’s cookies while on vacation, you have to eat healthy when you return. And don’t expect re-entry to a movie theater if you don’t keep your ticket stub with you—even if that movie theater was set up by your dad in your own living room, complete with popcorn and a broom-handle turnstile leading into the makeshift theater seats.

“He taught me many life lessons. He didn’t always take the immediate gratification route,” she said. “He took the high road.”

He would tell his children that “you can’t make people like you.” And if something didn’t work out, not to worry because that meant “something better was coming along.” And that there is never a need to do anything crazy, “things will work out.” He taught his children to always be kind to everyone “because you never know what kind of day someone else has had.”

And he told his children to “always be prepared.” loving. But when Tim became ill, Kelly was kept from seeing her dad. And the heartbreaking turn at the end of her beloved father’s life, Kelly found herself in the same unbearable situation suffered by the children of other Hollywood legends like Casey Kasem and Mickey Rooney.

Kelly was barred from seeing him by his then-wife and caregiver.

She endured a vicious court battle for conservatorship of her father’s interests, one that ended in a tenuous mediated agreement with her stepmother that satisfied no one and left Kelly feeling helpless as her father declined. She learned about her dad’s 2019 death in a text from a friend.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” Conway said with a sigh as she talked about the stories in her book and the dichotomy of her early life versus the broken family dynamic at the end of her father’s life.

“I don’t regret what I did because it was to help my dad, not

PIANO LESSON, 1967 “THIS IS YOUR LIFE,” CONWAY KIDS (L TO R): COREY, SEANN, KELLY, JAMIE, PATRICK, TIM JR., WITH TIM SR. IN THE MIDDLE, 1987 ON NBC

“We’d go to a movie and Dad would insist on sitting in the second or third back row,” Kelly said. “He said it was because if there was a fire or earthquake, we’d be first out the door.”

The comedian once asked his daughter to find him some wirecutters to hide in his costume on set one day when he was rigged to wires carrying him through the air for a sketch, figuring that if there was an emergency, everyone would scurry from the soundstage and he would have no way to escape himself.

“Dad always taught us to be prepared,” Conway, who eventually became a costume designer and wardrobe stylist for television and music videos, said with a laugh.

But nothing prepared Kelly for the battle that would erupt with her stepmother when her father’s health declined. Kelly’s relationship with Charlene Conway had always been friendly and because I was against Charlene,” Kelly said. “I learned that family law in Los Angeles is simply a cash cow, not really a means to justice.”

The drama tore her family apart and left her an advocate for legislation that would prevent future families from suffering similar circumstances.

She has since made peace with the experience. She said her dad always took the high road. She wants to be like him.

“He was so loved,” Kelly said. “He was my best pal in the world. I just loved him. We grew up in the Valley, which was like living in the country back then. He just had a fun job and we got to have fun with him.”

Kelly recalled how Carol Burnett said it best, “Tim Conway was one in a million, not only as a brilliant comedian, but as a loving human being.” ▪