Philanthropist and wife of Frank Sinatra

Born: March 10, 1927;

Died: July 25, 2017

BARBARA Sinatra, who has died aged 90, was the fourth wife of singer Frank Sinatra who used her celebrity, and a good deal of the large cheques her husband earned for concerts, to establish and run a centre to provide therapy and support to young victims of physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

The Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre was opened in the desert city of Rancho Mirage in 1986 and has since helped more than 20,000 children and hundreds of thousands more throughout the world through the videos it provides. Barbara Sinatra was involved in the centre until recently and Frank Sinatra himself would also help out, sometimes visiting and reading to the children.

Barbara Sinatra was the great singer's fourth wife and was a former model and Las Vegas showgirl. She was born Barbara Blakeley in Bosworth, Missouri, and in her memoir Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank Sinatra, recalled growing up poor and friendless. When she was 10, the family moved to Kansas and then later to Long Beach, California, where Barbara recalled listening to Frank Sinatra's voice on the radio.

"In a way, Frank Sinatra had always been part of my life," she recalled. "I first heard the singer everybody was talking about when I was a 15-year-old butcher's daughter living in Wichita, Kansas, and the tenderness in his voice melted my tomboy heart."

By the time she met the singer, Barbara Sinatra was a prominent Palm Springs socialite in her own right. 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 neighbours in Rancho Mirage until she left Marx.

When Barbara and Frank married in 1976, he was 60 and she was 49 and they remained married until his death in 1998 aged 82. 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.

In her memoirs, Sinatra wrote about her husband's infamous temper. "On tour, I realised there was definitely a Jekyll and Hyde aspect to Frank's character," she said. "Before appearing on stage, he'd shout at everyone behind the scenes, especially his son Frank Jr, who worked as his conductor for years.

"It was his way of getting up steam, but it wasn't pretty to be around. Restless and impatient, Frank wanted laughs and entertainment the rest of the time. He was never more keyed up than in the hours following a performance, when he needed to burn off some of his incredible energy."

Over the years, Frank and Barbara Sinatra played an active role in the children's centre she established.

"Frank would come over and sit and read to the kids," said John Thoresen, director of the Barbara Sinatra Children's Centre.

"But the best way she used Frank," he added, "was she would say, 'I need a half-million dollars for this, so you do a concert and I get half the money'."

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

Barbara Sinatra is survived by her son, Robert Oliver Marx, and a grand-daughter Carina Blakely Marx.