Dolores Hope, the widow of late entertainer Bob Hope, has died of natural causes at the age of 102, a family spokesman said.

Dolores, a singer who put her career on hold after her marriage, died in the Toluca Lake area of Los Angeles, spokesman Harlan Boll said.

Bob Hope, her husband of almost 70 years, died in July 2003 at the age of 100.

Dolores had a singing career in New York before she met her entertainer husband and married him. Together, they moved to Los Angeles so he could pursue a career in film and television.

The couple raised four children and Dolores often accompanied Hope on his many visits to entertain US troops overseas.

At the age of 83, she revived her singing career, recording several albums and performing with Rosemary Clooney.

She made her last visit to US servicemen at age 84, during the 1991 Gulf War, when she performed White Christmas from the back of a truck in the Saudi desert.

Bob Hope is among the most beloved US entertainers of the 20th Century.

He got his start on vaudeville, worked on radio, acted in movies where he was perhaps best known for his road films with Bing Crosby, and in later years appeared in numerous TV specials.

Hope would frequently mention his marriage to Dolores on TV talk shows.

Like her husband, Dolores Hope was a keen golfer and received multiple awards for her humanitarian work, especially for causes that benefited the poor.

She leaves two children, three grandchildren and a great grandson.

Mr Boll said funeral services would be private and Dolores would be buried next to her husband at the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at the San Fernando Mission outside Los Angeles.

Reuters