She was born in Harlem New York in 1909 and died at her home in Toluca Lake California of natural causes. Dolores Reade was singing at the Vogue Club in Manhattan when she was introduced to rising Broadway star Bob Hope.
As he described it, it was “love at first song”. They were married for nearly seventy years. The Hopes moved to California in the late thirties so that Bob could pursue his film and radio careers.
They built a home in Toluca Lake where she lived until her death. Bob and Dolores adopted four children and Dolores became an advocate for adoption, serving on the board of Holy Family Adoption Services in Los Angeles.
Though she accompanied her husband on many of his USO trips to entertain the troops usually closing the show with a touching rendition of “Silent Night” she really had put her singing career on hold to be at his side and to raise their children.
But at the age of eighty-three she revisited a long postponed singing career, recording several albums and performing with Rosemary Clooney in New York at “RAINBOW AND STARS” for several weeks and receiving rave reviews.
Throughout her life Dolores was a gracious hostess and great asset to her world famous husband. She made her last visit to the servicemen and women during “Operation Desert Storm” Performing “White Christmas” from the back of a truck in the middle of the Saudi desert. She was eighty-four at the time.
Dolores Hope has been the Honorary Mayor of Palm Springs five times and named “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times. She is survived by her children Linda Hope of Toluca Lake, California, William Kelly Hope of Oakland, California, and her grandchildren, Zachary Hope, Miranda Hope, Andrew Hope Lande and great-grandson Kai Smith.
Services are private and burial will be at the Bob Hope Memorial Garden, San Fernando Mission – next to Bob.
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