Nancy Barbato

She was an ordinary young woman, a plasterer’s daughter from a large Italian-American family, born in Jersey City in 1917. Her given names were Nancy Rose, her maiden name Barbato. For a dozen tumultuous years Frank and Nancy Sinatra were man and wife. from the end of their marriage in 1951 until his death, at 82, in 1998 — Nancy Barbato Sinatra, who died on Friday July 13 2018 at 101, remained her ex-husband’s cherished friend and quiet confidante. Her daughter Nancy Sinatra, the singer, announced the death on Twitter. Rumor became incontrovertible humiliation when he left her for Ava Gardner, one of Hollywood’s most celebrated beauties, an event splashed round the world in the headlines. For a time, anyway, she declined to give him the divorce he sought. But in the end, for his sake — so the man she loved could marry the woman he loved — she agreed, and they were divorced in 1951. He married Gardner within the week. Mrs. Sinatra got custody of their three children: Nancy and Frank Jr., both of whom grew up to have careers as pop singers, and Christina, known as Tina, who became an actress and producer. She also got the house in Holmby Hills, an exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood; a Cadillac; and an annual percentage of Sinatra’s income. One of eight children of Michaelangelo Barbato and the former Jennie Fogacci, Nancy Rose Barbato was born on March 25, 1917, and went on to graduate from William L. Dickinson High School in Jersey City. In 1934, when she was 17 and he 19, she met Sinatra in Long Branch, on the Jersey Shore, where both families summered. Early in their marriage, the couple lived in Jersey City; they later moved to Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.