tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with carol burnett. her life has had more than its share of challenges and tragedies. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing.

we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: it is a well-worn cliche to say someone does not need an introduction, but look at his face. does she really need an introduction? i am delighted to have carol burnett on the program. she has entertained us for 15 years. she has also have significant

heartache, most particularly with her daughter kerry who after overcoming addictions lost her battle to cancer. she wrote about it in a book ."lled "carrie and me" i did not think he would come back for this book. there's a chapter where you , and i can see the

pain in your face. i can tell that place was still causing some discomfort and some painted in the way you approach the answer to that question. your approach to the question. i am glad you came back. it is a long way of staying wide. >> before she was diagnosed with cancer -- she was a writer, a performer, a singer. she did all kinds of things, so this particular time she was writing a story called sunrise girlsphis about a young who takes a road trip to graceland with a mysterious cowboy, so she was writing this

and she actually decided to take the road trip herself, so she got in her jeep and live from hollywood and took the same trip the character in her story tote -- left from hollywood and took the same trip the character in her story took. she would e-mail me scenes and also things about whom she met the road and her private adventures. i saved the e-mails, and i was the mailing her back and forth. when she was in the hospital, she was diagnosed right after that road trip. when she was in the hospital for the last time, she said, can you finish my story? she had a beginning, that and, and most of the middle, but she wanted me to fill it out.

think i can.not i am not sure where you would want me to go with this. i thought, what can i do to bring this -- i tried to finish her story for her, and it just was not happening. carey was such a force and such an interesting young woman. we had a sand and downs. i thought, -- we have ups and downs. i wanted to bring her optimism and how she loved people. us, andd to write about

even before she was born. years, and young in she was into drugs briefly as a teenager, and she came out and got sober, and when she came out of rehab and went on to have quite a career. she did movies, television. she wrote music. she sang. she did all kinds of things. , andid a movie years ago it was killed in japan. it was a lovely movie. it is kind of a cult film into apparent. .- in japan she got great reviews, and marlon brando called her after he saw her in this movie. he wanted to talk about a project he was working on.

she turned him down. nuts?d, are you death at least have a meeting with him. he ain't gonna come knocking at your door all the time, and she said, i do not care about being a star. i do not care about being famous. i want to do it all. now i want to work on my music, and after that, she said, i am going to pick up my riding. she said, -- now to pick up my writing. she said, i want to do it all. tavis: there is nothing like self-determination. >> after she said that i became so proud of her.

she is doing what she wants, not because i might want her to do it or because she wanted fame. tavis: there is so much in this in both. let me pick out a few things .hat jumped out to mea you talk about her drug use when she was a teenager. one of the most fascinating entries is when you acknowledge the revelation you had when it you for allrred tearooo the exposure and lifestyle, in many ways they had it harder than you, and in some ways that opens the door for kids to have access to stuff you wanted to have but did not have.

talk to me about that. >> we were going to fly back for family week because carrie was in the second rehab. my other daughters were little. we were flying back from hawaii to go to rehab, but i woke up at 4:00 in the morning. i kept a diary, and i was thinking about how i have been difficult childhood. i knew i was in love. i was never abused, but we were i hadoor, and in no way nowhere to go but top-notch -- but up. people talk about drugs to riches. it is commendable people make

something of themselves, and then i got to thinking about what about the people born with a silver spoon in their mouth, yet they still do something with their lives that is positive rather than sitting back and letting everything come to them. been advantages and still want to make something of themselves. i find it difficult to have ambition. i mean are really honorable goal, so i came to the conclusion carrie had it harder than i did. myself in these conversations with my friends

who come from a tradition where .e have struggled when african americans make , these kids are going to school in mercedes and jaguar hours. they do not even know what a commercial airliner is. i take your point about the elite having it even more difficult. your kid has to live with new to live with you -- with you. there is an interesting balance

to expose them to the world. i was hit by the empathy's she i she was driving through , and she e-mails, i cannot believe the prejudice even still today african- americans are subject to. there was never any kind of prejudice because i did not have thought. they were not privy to that awful of bringing. -- up grinning. i love what she says.

she finds southern hospitality so fabulous. she loved the mountains and down home stuff. i think had she lived she might have settled some place like about reagan >> she loved listening to music -- someplace like that. >> she loved listening to music. >> she fell in love with that. tavis: to have that kind of empathy comes from somewhere, and to revel in the humanity of people. you did your job in that regard. it came from somewhere. >> my background -- my mother was a little prejudice.

arkansas and texas. my kid sister and i never picked up on that. she had love of humanity. she said, i do not know why people do not smile. said, i feel joy. how does a mother process work? prepared >> i wanted to be able

butay to her, i can do it, ,s i said, it had been a burden and we could do even more rather than just finished her story. once i got the key to doing felt her on my right shoulder. now you know what you want to do, and it is ok. it freed me.

it has been this cloud. i had to do something. to do you felt liberated the project, but was a therapeutic? what did clean it -- completing the project do for you? >> it made me happy. to what i could do. tavis: is there anything in your life region and not a word is there is nothing more difficult a parent would do bendery his or her child. is there anything that even

comes close to having to walk with black >> that is the worst pain of a parent can go through. i have been asked, how do you .ope we were riding of play. i did not want to get out of the bed. -- we were writing a play. my husband said, you have to finish this play.

that gave me the reason to get out of bed. now i had to finish this forme carrie. of course every day i think but what i try to do is dedicates every day to her memory, that i am doing this for her. the one thing she had was the last time she was in the hospital and the nurse said, i have to tell you something about your daughter. . when we go into her room, she cheers us up. so cheerful?re you

i wake andvery day the side, today i am going to love my life, so that is the .ind of girl she was how did your journey and which carry impact your relationship with the other ?aughters >> joanie and aaron were with her when she passed away. relationship.at when i told the girls are was going to write this, they were all for it, and they contributed a couple of things in the book.

you have gone back and forth. i love the way the book is in doubt. -- is laid out. tell me the story for me. crash,pens with a plane -- this bohemian toronto bohemian girl is in the plane, and she is in the car headed for and she feelse, she got drunk in hollywood and got picked up, and now she is in the car with this guy, and what happens is she does not like him. she wants him to take her back to hollywood where she was the night before. it turns out no one wants to talk to her anymore.

she has earned her bridges, so he says, we are going to go to graceland. they have these different adventures on the road together, and she starts to take to him and like him. forth, and youd see what she was before she started the strips -- before she started this trip. it changes, and it turns out she and thisat airplane whole trip was her way of finding herself and he was her angel, and at the end they get to graceland and he says, are you ready? and she says as i will ever be, and a walk-through and disappear, we did a walk-through and disappear, and a real -- and

when they walk through and disappear, and you realize she was in a plane crash. tavis: no parent wants to see their child suffer, yet i suspect people learn things about you damian not have to learn when they see you go through our crisis. is there something you came to ?ppreciate in a different way >> i could not get over until the very end how positive she , and even when she was in pain sometimes and she would come out of it, she would be there with a smile. it was amazing. everybody in a hospital just adored her. expected her to be that way.

little byrd told me in august of this year we are going to see you and mr. conway. reunited. is there truth to this story? hot in cleveland. >> i love this. >> you got back together? >> it is only one scene at the end. betty is an old buddy of mine. she was on our show quite often, so it was fun to get in the sandbox with that group. they are very sweet. >> on any given night you can flip channels and see the box set or the best of carol burnett. i have seen them a gazillion times, yet at 1:00 in the morning i still stop and watch those clips. >> these are in the stores now.

them ande buying watching some of the fall shows nobody has seen since they first aired. tavis: if that were the only thing you were judged by was that show, if your career were defined by that, you would be happy with it? >> definitely a. that is one of the best times of my life. we live for 11 years. it came mount and immediately jumped on the best-seller list and -- it came out and immediately jumped on the best- seller list. it is a wonderful read. always great to have you on the

program. until next time, they is for watching. as always, keep the faith. -- thank you for watching. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with joyce carol oates. that is next time. we will see you then. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do thei try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out.

pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. pbs.

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