Tiny Tim

**Herbert Butros Khaury** (April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996), also known as **Herbert Buckingham Khaury** and known professionally as **Tiny Tim**, was an American singer, ukulele player, and musical archivist. He is best remembered for his 1968 hit "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", which he sang in a falsetto voice. Khaury was born in Manhattan, New York City, on April 12, 1932. His mother Tillie (née Staff), a Polish-Jewish garment worker, was the daughter of a rabbi. She had immigrated from Brest-Litovsk, present-day Belarus, as a teen in 1914. Khaury's father, Butros Khaury, was a textile worker from Beirut, present-day Lebanon, whose father was a Maronite Catholic priest. Khaury displayed musical talent at a very young age. At the age of five, his father gave him a vintage wind-up gramophone and a 78-RPM record of "Beautiful Ohio" by Henry Burr. He would sit for hours listening to the record. At the age of six, he began teaching himself guitar. By his pre-teen years, he developed a passion for records, specifically those from the 1900s through the 1930s. He began spending most of his free time at the New York Public Library, reading about the history of the phonograph industry and its first recording artists. He researched sheet music, often making photographic copies to take home to learn, a hobby he continued for his entire life. He attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Khaury was a devout Catholic. On September 28, 1996, Khaury recorded a video interview at the Montague Bookmill. He later suffered a heart attack at a ukulele festival at the nearby Montague Grange Hall in Montague, Massachusetts. He was hospitalized at the nearby Franklin County Medical Center in Greenfield for approximately three weeks before being discharged with strong admonitions not to perform again because of his health, weight, and dietary needs for his diabetic and heart conditions. He ignored the advice. On November 30, 1996, he was playing at a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis. He had let his third wife ("Miss Sue") know before the show that he was not feeling well, but did not want to disappoint his fans. Before the start of his performance, most of the audience had left. While performing his last number of the evening, he suffered another heart attack on stage in the middle of a rendition of his hit, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". His wife asked him if he was feeling all right, and he said he was not; she was helping him back to their table where he collapsed, and never regained consciousness. EMTs performed on-site CPR and transported him to Hennepin County Medical Center, where after repeated revival attempts, he was pronounced dead at 11:20 pm. His remains are entombed in a mausoleum in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis. A large mural of Tiny Tim with tulip themes by famous Australian artist Martin Sharp is in the Macquarie University Student Council in Sydney, Australia.

## Albums

* *God Bless Tiny Tim (1968)*
* *Tiny Tim's 2nd Album (1968)*
* *For All My Little Friends (1969)*
* *Wonderful World of Romance (1980)*
* *Chameleon (Street of Dreams YPRX 1848) (1980)*
* *The Eternal Troubadour (1986)*
* *Tiptoe Through The Tulips: Resurrection (1988)*
* *Leave Me Satisfied (1989)*
* *Tiny Tim Rock (1993)*
* *I Love Me (1993)*
* *Songs of an Impotent Troubadour (1994)*
* *Tiny Tim's Christmas Album (1994)*
* *Prisoner of Love: A Tribute to Russ (1995)*
* *Girl (1996)*