Bob Hope's wife Dolores dies at 102

Dolores & Bob Hope

Dolores Hope, a singer and wife of the Catholic comedian Bob Hope, died at home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles on Monday. She was 102 years old. The couple were married for 68 years. They devoted much of their lives to working for Catholic charities.

After Bob died, at the age of 100, in 2003, Dolores continued the philanthropic work they had done together, largely through the Bob and Dolores Hope Charitable Foundation.

Dolores DeFina was born in Harlem, and grew up in the Bronx. She changed her last name to Reade when she took to the stage as a nightclub singer. Bob saw her for the first time in 1933 when was performing at the Vogue Club in Manhattan. He was starring with actor George Murphy in the Jerome Kern-Otto Harbach musical comedy Roberta at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

The couple married in 1934. Dolores retired from the the stage in order to bring up their four adopted children.

In 1993, Dolores recorded her first album, Now and Then, a collection of pre-war hits and more recent songs. Over the next decade she made several more nostalgic albums, including Somewhere in Time: The Songs and Spirit of WWII. Bob and Dolores also performed together on a few occasions and recorded one joint album: Hopes for the Holidays. Although frail in her last years, Dolores remained alert and active to the end of her life.

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H Gomez said: "Both the entertainment world and the church have lost a woman of profound faith, gifted musical talent and dedication. The death of Dolores Hope leaves a huge void in Southern California."

Spokesman Harlan Boll said funeral services would be private and Dolores would be buried next to her husband at the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at the San Fernando Mission outside Los Angeles.

The Hopes' son Anthony died in 2004, at age 63. She is survived by her daughters, Linda, a television producer, and Nora, son, William, three grandchildren, and a great-grandson.