Nancy Sinatra pays tribute after her mother dies at 101
NANCY SINATRA Jnr has paid tribute to her late mother, describing her as a “blessing and the light of my life”.
Nancy Snr, first wife of singer Frank and mother of his three children, died on Friday night at the age of 101.
Her daughter Nancy Jnr, famed for her song These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, posted the news to Twitter early on Saturday morning.
She wrote: “My mother passed away peacefully tonight at the age of 101.
“She was a blessing and the light of my life. Godspeed, Momma. Thank you for everything.”
Sinatra Snr was born Nancy Barbato on March 25 1917 and met Frank in 1934 at the New Jersey holiday resort of Long Branch.
He was 19, she was 17 and the couple got engaged almost immediately, marrying four years later despite Frank admitting to having had an affair during their engagement.
After the wedding they returned to their jobs – as a secretary in a printing plant and a singing waiter – and remained together for 12 years as Frank’s career, and rumours of his continued infidelity, grew.
According to biographers her life changed from cooking vegetarian pasta sauce to save the impoverished young couple the price of meat, to sewing new bow ties for Frank after frenzied fans ripped them off on stage.
In 1950 Nancy was granted a legal separation on the grounds of her husband’s “mental cruelty” – claiming he regularly went away for weekends by himself and had multiple extramarital affairs.
They were formally divorced in 1951 and Frank married Ava Gardner the same week.
The singer went on to marry twice more, to Mia Farrow and Barbara Marx, but his first wife remained a close friend and confidante until his death at the age of 82 in 1998.
Her granddaughter AJ Lambert told Vanity Fair in 2015 that Frank would regularly call for late-night chats, or drop by to visit her Nancy in her California home.
She said: “I know he never stopped loving her, and I know she never stopped loving him.”
Sinatra Snr never remarried. Asked why in 1998, she replied simply: “After Sinatra?”
Nancy Jnr is the eldest of the three children, followed by singer Frank Jnr, who died in 2016, and actress Tina.