Barbara Marx

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Barbara Marx, born Barbara Joanna Blakeley on October 16, 1927, was the wife of former comedian-turned agent Zeppo Marx from September 18, 1959 until she divorced him in either 1972 or 1973.

Missouri-born Barbara Blakeley married Robert Harrison Oliver, an executive with the Miss Universe pageant, in the mid- to late-1940s, a marriage which produced a son, Robert (aka Bobby), but ended in divorce. Blakely became a Las Vegas showgirl in the 1950s, modeled clothing for Mr. Blackwell and, according to Blackwell, was a regular at hotel/casino bars in order to come into contact with high rollers. This was how she met Zeppo Marx.

Her son Bobby was adopted by Zeppo Marx when he married Barbara, as his second wife, on September 18, 1959, and Bobby became known as Bobby Marx. Years later Barbara would try to get Frank Sinatra to legally adopt Marx when Marx was a grown man; Sinatra's children intervened and prevented it.

In the early 1970s she started seeing Frank Sinatra, as a friend at first and later as a lover. The two were married from July 11, 1976 until his death on May 14, 1998. It was Frank's fourth and final marriage, and the longest-lasting one, despite Barbara's cool relations with Frank's children (from his first marriage). According to Frank's biography by Kitty Kelley and confirmed by Frank's daughter, Tina, in her book My Father's Daughter, Frank's mother, Natalie (a former abortionist; see Frank Sinatra), railed at the prospect of Barbara Marx as a daughter-in-law, declaring "I don't want no whore in this family!"

Best known as Barbara Marx, she is also known as Barbara Sinatra.

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