Barbara Sinatra, the fourth wife of deceased singing legend Frank Sinatra, died Tuesday at her Rancho Mirage, California, home after “months of declining health,” the Desert Sun reports. She was 90.
Sinatra married the “Strangers in the Night” singer in 1976 and remained married to him until his death in 1998. The nearly 22-year marriage was the longest of the singer’s four unions.
John Thoresen, director of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, told the Desert Sun that Sinatra “died comfortably surrounded by family and friends at her home.”
Sinatra founded the center, which provides counseling for child-abuse victims, with her husband in 1986. The center was supported by the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament. The tournament included performances by Sinatra from 1989 until 1995, in a show that marked the crooner’s final performance ever.
Following her husband’s death, Barbara hosted the tournament and other events through 2016.
Born Barbara Blakeley in Bosworth, Missouri, Sinatra described her parents as “broke” in her autobiography “Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank.”
After she and her mother moved to Long Beach, California, she took up modeling, eventually opening her own modeling school.
Prior to her marriage to Sinatra, Barbara was married twice, to singer Robert Oliver and Marx Brothers actor Herbert “Zeppo” Marx.
Family friend Jamie Kabler told the Desert Sun that Sinatra’s funeral will take place August 1. She is survived by son Robert Marx and a granddaughter.
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