Dolores Hope Dies at Age 102

Los Angeles - Dolores Hope, the widow of actor/comedian Bob Hope, died today of natural causes at age 102.

Hope died around noon at her Toluca Lake home, according to family spokesman Harlan Boll.

Born Dolores DeFina in New York City, she began singing professionally in in the 1930s, and met her future husband after appearing at a Manhattan nightclub. The couple were married Feb. 19, 1934, and they stayed together for 69 years, until Bob Hope's death in 2003 at age 100.

After they were married, Dolores Hope joined her husband's vaudeville act, but she later went away from performing to focus on the couple's four adopted children -- Eleanora, Linda, Kelly and Anthony.

About a decade later, however, she began performing again alongside her husband during his many overseas trips to entertain U.S. troops. In 1990, she accompanied Bob Hope to entertain troops in Operation Desert Storm -- and she was the only female entertainer permitted to perform in Saudi Arabia.

Despite her long singing career, it wasn't until she was 83 years old that she released her first album, "Dolores Hope: Now and Then."

Boll said funeral services would be private, for family and friends only, and she would be buried next to her husband at Bob Hope Memorial Garden at the San Fernando Mission.

"She did tell me once she credited their longevity to laughter," Boll said. "Between her and Bob they certainly had a lot of it in their lifetime."