Frank Sinatra’s 4th wife dies at age 90

Gurrumul dead at 46

LOS ANGELES, July 26, (Agencies): Barbara Sinatra, the fourth wife of legendary singer Frank Sinatra and a prominent children’s advocate and philanthropist who raised millions of dollars to help abused children, died Tuesday at 90.

Sinatra died of natural causes at her Rancho Mirage, California, home surrounded by family and friends, said John Thoresen, director of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center.

With her husband’s help, Barbara Sinatra founded a nonprofit center in 1986 to provide therapy and other support to young victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. In the years since, Thoresen said, more than 20,000 children have been treated at the center in the desert city of Rancho Mirage and hundreds of thousands more throughout the world through videos it provides.

A former model and Las Vegas showgirl, Barbara Sinatra was a prominent Palm Springs socialite in her own right before she married her husband in 1976 when he was 60 and she 49. They remained wed until his death at in 1998 age 82.

She met the singer through her previous husband, Zeppo Marx of the famous Marx Brothers comedy team. Marx and Frank Sinatra had been close friends and neighbors in Rancho Mirage until she left Marx.

It was her third marriage, Sinatra’s fourth and the most enduring union for both.

Frank Sinatra had previously been married to Nancy Sinatra (mother of their children Nancy and Frank Jr.), as well as actresses Ava Gardner, who died in 1990, and Mia Farrow.

Over the years, Frank and Barbara Sinatra played an active role in the children’s center.

“Frank would come over and sit and read to the kids,” Thoresen said of the sometimes volatile entertainer.

“But the best way she used Frank,” he added with a chuckle, “was she would say, ‘I need a halfmillion dollars for this, so you do a concert and I get half the money.’”

She remained active at the center until recently, pushing for creation of the video program just last year and making sure the children had anything they needed, Thoresen said.

Sinatra

World-renowned indigenous singer Gurrumul has died after a “long battle with illness” aged 46, his management said Wednesday, as Australians hailed his contributions to music.

Born blind, the reluctant star never gave any interviews and was painfully shy, but his music drew worldwide acclaim, despite the fact that he performed in his Gumatj dialect which is understood by only around 3,000 people.

The singer — whose full name is Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu — passed away at the Royal Darwin Hospital, his record label Skinnyfish Music Australia said in a statement.

“Today we mourn the loss of a great Australian, Dr G. Yunupingu who sadly passed away yesterday in Royal Darwin Hospital at age 46 after a long battle with illness,” Skinnyfish said, without giving further details.

Australians, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, took to social media to pay tribute to the singer.

“Dr G Yunupingu was a remarkable Australian sharing Yolngu language with the world through music. Prayers for Galiwin’ku & family & friends,” Turnbull tweeted.

Australian rock legend and Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett tweeted that Gurrumul was a “truly great musician”.

“Very sad news. Too young, so much left to give. Heart goes out to family.”

Gurrumul collaborated with musicians across the world, including producer Quincy Jones and British giants Elton John and Sting who performed or recorded with him.

He also performed for audiences including Queen Elizabeth II and former US president Barack Obama.

Blind from birth, he emerged from the remote Galiwin’ku community on Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land in Australia’s north to sell over half a million albums worldwide.

But he reportedly struggled with liver and kidney disease through contracting Hepatitis B as a child, with his early death a “stark reminder why we must close the gap of life expectancy for indigenous ppl”, Greens Senator Sarah HansonYoung tweeted.

“It’s a failure of all of us that we have lost such an amazing human being,” his friend Vaughan Williams told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“I feel he was trapped in the same cycle of bad health that so many indigenous people are trapped in.”

Aborigines, whose cultures stretch back tens of thousands of years, remain the most disadvantaged Australians.

They were believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement, but now make up only about three percent of the total national population of 24 million.

Under Aboriginal custom, the publication of images of a recently deceased person is prohibited.

More comfortable speaking in his native language than in English, Yunupingu avoided media interviews and lived most of his life on remote Elcho Island.

He first picked up a guitar as a 6-year-old, learning to play it upside down because he was left handed. He suffered years of ill health, having contracted Hepatitis B as a child, which left him with liver and kidney disease.

In 2012, he had to cancel a number of European performances due to illness, including performing at the London Olympic Games.

Friend Vaughan Williams took Yunupingu to the hospital last week over concerns he may not have been receiving renal treatment more than 500 kilometers (320 miles) away at Elcho Island.

Williams said he felt the death was “preventable,” which made it more crushing.