FILE - In this May 16, 2014, file photo, author Pat Conroy speaks to a crowd during a ceremony at the Hollings Library in Columbia, S.C. Conroy, whose best-selling novels drew from his own sometimes painful experiences and evoked vistas of the South Carolina coast and its people, has died at age 70. Todd Doughty, executive director of publicity at publisher Doubleday, says Conroy died Friday evening, March 4, 2016, at his home in Beaufort surrounded by family and loved ones. (AP Photo/ Richard Shiro, File)