Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in an upstairs tenement at 415 Monroe Street in Hoboken, New Jersey, the only child of Italian immigrants Natalina “Dolly” Garaventa and Antonino Martino “Marty” Sinatra, who boxed under the name Marty O’Brien. Sinatra weighed 13.5 pounds (6.1 kg) at birth and had to be delivered using forceps, which caused severe scarring to his left cheek, neck, and ear, as well as perforating his eardrum, which left him permanently damaged.
When he was unconscious, his grandmother resuscitated him by running cold water over him until he gasped his first breath. Due to his birth injuries, his baptism at St. Francis Church in Hoboken was postponed until April 2, 1916. A childhood operation on his mastoid bone left significant scarring on his neck, and he suffered from cystic acne during adolescence, which further scarred his face and neck. Sinatra grew up in the Catholic Church.
What was Frank Sinatra’s cause of death?
Frank Sinatra, one of the twentieth century’s most popular entertainers, died of a fatal heart attack.
Sinatra’s mother was energetic and driven, and biographers believe she was the most influential in shaping her son’s personality and self-confidence. Sinatra’s fourth wife Barbara would later claim that Dolly was abusive to him when he was a child, and “knocked him around a lot”.
Dolly rose to prominence in Hoboken and the local Democratic Party. She worked as a midwife, earning $50 for each delivery, and according to Sinatra biographer Kitty Kelley, also ran an illegal abortion service that catered to Italian Catholic girls, for which she was nicknamed “Hatpin Dolly”. She was also gifted in languages and worked as a local interpreter.
