Frank Sinatra's fourth wife Barbara dies at age 90

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Frank Sinatra's fourth wife Barbara dies at age 90

 

FILE PHOTO - Legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra and his wife Barbara pose for photographers backstage at the taping of an ABC TV special "Sinatra: 80 Years My Way" at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on November 19, 1995. REUTERS/Lee Celano/File Photo

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Barbara Sinatra, the fourth wife of singer Frank Sinatra, died on Tuesday at the age of 90, her representative said.

 

John Thoresen, director of the Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre in Rancho Mirage, California, said in a statement that Sinatra died of natural causes, surrounded by her family and friends at her home in the desert city.

 

Born Barbara Blakely, she was a former model and Las Vegas showgirl who married the famed singer and actor in 1976. She had been married to him for 22 years when he died of a heart attack in 1998. She had previously been married to Zeppo Marx, the youngest of the Marx Brothers comedy team.

 

It was the longest of Frank Sinatra's marriages, which included unions with actresses Ava Gardner and Mia Farrow, and teenage sweetheart Nancy Barbato.

 

Frank and Barbara Sinatra founded the Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, in 1986. The centre counsels physically, sexually and emotionally abused children.

 

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-26