Susan

In a smoky Manhattan nightclub in 1933, a rising Broadway star slipped into the Vogue Club one evening. Bob Hope, then starring in the hit musical Roberta, had been brought by a friend to hear a pretty girl sing. What he heard instead was a soft, husky voice wrapping itself around “It’s Only a Paper Moon” and “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” He later said that was it—he was gone. From that night on, he returned again and again, waiting to walk Dolores Reade home. She went back to her mother and quietly announced she had met the man she would marry. When family plans briefly took her to Florida, they lived on long-distance calls; she eventually broke her contract and came home. Less than three months after they met, on February 19, 1934, they were married in Erie, Pennsylvania. She joined his vaudeville act for a time, then set her own career aside to build their life. They adopted four children—Linda, Anthony, Kelly, and Nora—and made a home in Toluca Lake that would shelter them for the rest of their days. While Bob’s fame grew into movies, radio, and television, Dolores remained the steady center, the one Lucille Ball once called “the smartest thing Bob Hope ever did.” Through decades of USO tours, she stood beside him entertaining American troops, often closing the show with a tender “Silent Night.” The soldiers loved her; she became as much a part of those journeys as he was. At home she poured herself into family and quiet philanthropy, a devoted partner through the long stretches of his public life. They marked their birthdays together each May and stayed side by side for 69 years, one of the longest marriages in Hollywood history. When Bob turned 100 in 2003, Dolores was still there. He died that July; she lived on until 2011, reaching 102. In the end, what began with a nightclub song became a lifetime of shared laughter, quiet loyalty, and the simple decision, made again and again, to keep choosing each other ♥️♥️