The wife of music icon Pat Boone has died at the age of 84.
Shirley Boone — who was married to the famed vocalist and actor for nearly 65 years — died early Friday, her husband told People magazine.
She had been diagnosed with vasculitis, a condition characterized by the inflammation of one’s blood vessels, under a year ago.
“We lived a wonderful, blessed life together for 65 years,” Boone, 84, told the magazine. “I’ve parted with my better half for a little while… but we don’t die, we just move on to another place, and today was moving day. She’s changed her address is all and moved to a different mansion that I expect to join her in one day.”
Shirley and the “Love Letters In The Sand” artist — who rose to fame in the 1950s — married in 1953, when they were both 19.
She came from a country music family, as her father Red Foley is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and her mother Judy Martin was also a prominent singer within the genre.
Shirley was accompanied by her longtime husband and their four daughters when she died at her Beverly Hills residence, according to People. She and Boone had 16 grandchildren.
