Bob Hope's widow Dolores dies, aged 102

Entertainer Bob Hope's widow Dolores has passed away at the age of 102.

Dolores - who was also an entertainer herself - died on Monday at her California home, according to her publicist Harlan Boll. A cause of death has not yet been made public.

Born Dolores DeFina in New York on May 27, 1909, the entertainer met Bob when he watched her sing at a nightclub in Manhattan in 1933, marrying him the following February.

She joined her husband entertaining American service personnel overseas in the 1940s and they spent over half a century working together. During one of her husband's last trips abroad in 1990, she was the only female entertainer to perform for troops stationed in Saudi Arabia at Christmas.



However, Dolores only recorded her first CD in 1993, entitled Now and Then.

The couple, who adopted four children, were keen philanthropists who were also instrumental in establishing the Eisenhower Medical Centre in California during the early 1970s.

Bob Hope died in 2003, two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. Dolores is survived by three of their children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.