Pat Boone Reflects on Loss of Wife Shirley After 65 Years of Marriage: 'Gosh, I Miss Her'
Pat Boone is a legend. With decades of experience in the entertainment business, he’s still creating at age 86, writing a book about faith called “If.”
“I was the youngest guy ever to have his own network music variety show, at 22,” Boone told Closer. A sensible young man, he also went to Columbia University, as he “didn’t expect the entertainment thing to survive.”
Survive and thrive it did, and his career in film and music took off. But equally if not more impressive was Boone’s 65-year marriage to Shirley as well as his commitment to his faith despite being so involved with Hollywood.
The Boones’ marriage was tested, he said, but the couple stuck it out and had four daughters.
“We made our commitment in marriage to God and to each other,” Boone said. “We make our own decisions, but we are helped supernaturally. [I’m] willing to be led in doing the right things.”
He credits faith and family with his perseverance, and though he lost his dear wife early last year to vasculitis, she’s still with him in many ways. According to WRCB-TV, his statement to family and friends regarding her departure was short but sweet.
“Quick bulletin, change of address: Dear Shirley BOONE doesn’t dwell in Beverly Hills now — she’s just been warmly welcomed into a beautiful new mansion in Heaven, prepared specifically for her and her husband by Jesus Himself, who said ‘that where I am, you may be also.’
“Rejoice for her, she’s begun her eternal life. She loves you too, as I do.”
Boone still lives in the same home he and his wife bought in 1960 in Beverly Hills, California.
“I’m living here alone with a housekeeper and my dog, a little cocker spaniel,” he said. “Shadow is his name.”
“It’s just me and my shadow, all alone and feeling blue,” Boone sang.
“I’m doing fine,” he added. “I mean, gosh, I miss her.”
He admitted he still talks to her on this side of heaven, but he has hope that he will be with her once again.
“I’d written a song called ‘You and I,’ and it expresses the thought that eventually we will be together in heaven,” Boone said.
“My greatest accomplishment is our marriage of 65 years in Hollywood, being an entertainer and my four kids. We’re living a good life.”
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