Bob and Doloros Hope, hometown guests-of-honor celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of Toluca Lake, California. ©Michael Cartel
“I’m still recovering from my 100th birthday bash, so I’m going to keep this year’s celebration much quieter,” Doloros Hope said of her 101st birthday last May.
Today, Four months into her 102nd year, Manhattan-born and Bronx-bred as Doloros DeFina of Italian and Irish heritage, Mrs. Bob Hope died peacefully in her Toluca Lake home today.
69 years of her life was one of the success stories of a high profile Hollywood marriage. In 1933, DeFina was introduced to Bob Hope after she had performed as a singer at the Vogue Club in Manhattan. The couple married a few months later and lasted until Hope died at age 100.
The Hopes adopted four children where Doloros changed careers to become a full time mother, then provide for them by helping with Bob‘s investments to become one of the wealthiest couples in Hollywood.
During the first Gulf War, as she was assisting her husband entertaining the troops (as she had for 50 years) Doloros Hope was the only woman ever allowed to perform in Saudi Arabia.
But it is her philanthropy that Doloros Hope will be most remembered with her humanitarian organization and charities where she was most generous.