Basic Information
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name (as used here) | Mary Anne Dalton |
| Birth | December 24, 1932 |
| Death | October 13, 2005 |
| Best-known relationship | First wife of comedian/actor Tim Conway (married 1961–1978) |
| Marriage | 1961 – 1978 |
| Children | Six children (see family table below) |
| Public profile | Private—primarily known in public records and family accounts rather than as a career public figure |
| Notable family events | Family involvement in a high-profile conservatorship dispute involving Tim Conway in 2018–2019 |
The Family Portrait: dates, names, and a small table of kin
I like to think of family trees the way cinematographers think of light: you tilt the lens, and suddenly faces you’d never expected emerge from the shadows. Here’s the core cast that centers on Mary Anne Dalton.
| Name | Relationship to Mary Anne Dalton | Quick introduction |
|---|---|---|
| Tim Conway | Spouse (married 1961–1978) | American comedian and actor, the public figure whose career often placed the family in the spotlight. |
| Kelly Conway | Daughter | One of the six children; later visible in public during family-care and conservatorship matters. |
| Tim Conway Jr. (Tim Jr.) | Son | Listed among the six children in family notices and obituaries. |
| Patrick (Pat) Conway | Son | One of the sons; appears in family summaries. |
| Jaime / Jamie Conway | Son | Name appears with variant spellings across records. |
| Corey Conway | Son | One of the sons named in family listings. |
| Seann / Shawn Conway | Son | Spelling varies in public listings; included among the six sons. |
| Jacqueline “Jackie” Beatty | Stepdaughter (by Tim’s later marriage) | Not Mary Anne’s child but often mentioned in broader family accounts. |
That table reads like a supporting cast list—6 children, one high-profile husband, a life lived largely offstage. But the numerical facts—1 marriage, 6 children, 17 years of marriage—only hint at texture. I want to fill in a few cinematic beats.
A timeline in a few frames
- 1932: Birth of Mary Anne Dalton (December 24).
- 1961: Marriage to Tim Conway—this is the decade when television comedy was shifting and families of performers often lived partly in the public eye.
- 1961–1978: Marriage period; six children were born during these years (exact birth years vary across public notices).
- 1978: Divorce finalized.
- 2005: Death of Mary Anne Dalton (October 13).
- 2018–2019: The Conway family was again in headlines as adult children and Tim’s second wife were involved in a conservatorship and care dispute, bringing renewed public attention to the Conway clan.
Numbers anchor a story: six children, 17 years of marriage, two major public moments (the marriage and the later-care dispute). But the small, private moments—bedroom light at midnight, lullabies hummed between rehearsals—are the ones that linger off the public ledger.
Career, Public Life, and What I Found When I Looked
I won’t invent an acting résumé that never existed—Mary Anne Dalton does not appear to have a public-facing career recorded in the usual entertainment directories. Her life, as visible to the public, reads primarily through relationships and family records: marriage to a widely known performer, home life, children, and later the family’s involvement in matters related to Tim Conway’s care.
If this were a film, Mary Anne would be a quietly powerful supporting character—present in key scenes, influencing tone and rhythm, never stepping fully into the marquee lights. That’s an archetype audiences love: the domestic force that stabilizes a chaotic, limelight career.
Financially, there’s no public ledger listing a separate net worth for Mary Anne Dalton; headline estimates commonly attached to Tim Conway (often circulating in the millions) refer to his estate and earnings, not to a separately documented fortune for Mary Anne. In short: her public profile is private—family-centered, not career-centered.
Family Dynamics: the public ripple effects
Family life with a celebrity is a long-running series of improvisations—talent on stage, parenting at home, timing split between taping schedules and school recitals. For Mary Anne Dalton and her six children, that meant navigating both normal familial rhythms and the irregular weather of public attention.
Decades later, the family would be dragged back into headlines. In 2018–2019, disputes around conservatorship and medical care for Tim Conway involved his adult children and his second wife, creating a public courtroom adjournment of private grief and responsibility. Kelly Conway—one of Mary Anne’s daughters—became a named actor in those proceedings, and suddenly old family lines that had once felt settled were parsed in public documents again. Those moments remind us that family stories are long: they echo forward for generations, sometimes in court rooms, sometimes in quiet recollection.
How I approached the story (a quick aside)
When I put this together, I treated the material like a scrapbook: names, dates, oblique notes—each fragment a photograph. I stitched those photographs into narrative fabric, careful not to dramatize beyond what the facts would bear. The result is a portrait that privileges warmth over spectacle—a family centered around a woman who lived most of her life outside the spotlight, and yet whose life was inextricably linked to an American comedy figure.
FAQ
Who was Mary Anne Dalton?
Mary Anne Dalton was the first wife of comedian Tim Conway, married from 1961 to 1978, and the mother of six children.
When was Mary Anne Dalton born and when did she die?
She was born on December 24, 1932, and died on October 13, 2005.
How many children did she have?
She had six children with Tim Conway.
Did Mary Anne Dalton have a public career?
No widely documented public career is associated with her; she is primarily known through family records and her marriage.
Was Mary Anne Dalton involved in the later family conservatorship disputes?
She was not directly reported as a party in later public disputes; those matters involved adult children and Tim Conway’s second wife.
Is there a recorded net worth for Mary Anne Dalton?
There is no public record of a separate net worth for Mary Anne Dalton; public financial mentions tend to refer to Tim Conway’s estate.
Are her children publicly active?
Some of her children, most notably Kelly Conway, have appeared in public conversations around family-care matters; others remain largely private.
Did Mary Anne remarry after 1978?
Public records and family notices do not document a subsequent marriage after her divorce from Tim Conway.
