Barbara Sinatra, founder of child-abuse center and widow of Frank Sinatra, is dead at 90

(Image credit: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 26 July 2017

Barbara Sinatra was still married to former Marx Brother Zeppo Marx when she started a relationship with Frank Sinatra, whom she wed in 1976. But Sinatra had unsuccessfully hit on her in 1957, when he was drinking with his fellow Rat Pack pals at the Riviera casino in Las Vegas, where she was a showgirl. Barbara and Frank Sinatra's marriage lasted almost 22 years, until the singer's death in 1998. In that time, they founded and raised millions for the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center, a nonprofit to help children who had been physically, mentally, or emotionally abused.

Barbara Sinatra died at her home in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday, at age 90. John Thorensen, the director of Barbara Sinatra Children's Center, confirmed her death, which he attributed to natural causes. Barbara Sinatra was born in Bosworth, Missouri, in 1926; her butcher father moved the family to Wichita when she was 10, and she moved to California and became a model in the 1940s. She is survived by Robert Oliver Marx, her son from her first marriage, to singer Bob Oliver; his wife, Hillary; and a granddaughter, Carina Blakeley Marx.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.