Dolores Hope, 102, the sultry-voiced songstress who was married to Bob Hope for 69 years and sang on his shows for U.S. troops and on his television specials, died Monday, a family spokesman said.
Bob Hope died at age 100 on July 27, 2003.
In 1933, when Bob Hope was appearing in his first Broadway show, “Roberta,” a friend persuaded him to visit the Vogue Club to “hear a pretty girl sing.” She was Dolores Reade, whose singing of “It’s Only a Paper Moon” entranced the young comedian.
Hope returned every night and soon he was escorting her to her hotel after her shows. They married Feb. 19, 1934, and she quit nightclubs to join his vaudeville act.
When they moved to Hollywood in 1938 for the beginning of his film career, Dolores stayed home and devoted her time to raising the four children the Hopes adopted: Linda, Anthony, Kelly and Nora. She continued singing at parties, and in the 1940s she began accompanying Hope on his Christmas trips to entertain U.S. troops.
Tom Wilson Sr., the creator of the hard-luck comic strip character Ziggy, died Friday of pneumonia, his family said Monday. He was 80.
Wilson was an artist at the American Greetings card company in Cleveland for more than 35 years and first published Ziggy in a 1969 cartoon collection, “When You’re Not Around.” Ziggy was launched in 15 newspapers in 1971 and now appears in more than 500 daily and Sunday newspapers. It also has appeared in books, calendars and greeting cards.
The Associated Press
