She was born Dolores L. DeFina on May 27, 1909,[1] in Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood of Italian and Irish descent, and was raised in the Bronx.

[1][2] During the 1930s, after working as a model, DeFina began her professional singing career, adopting the name Dolores Reade on the advice of her agent.

Bob and Dolores were the talk of many people back in those holy days," says a friend, Malory Thorn.

[citation needed] In the 1940s, Dolores began helping her husband on his tours entertaining U.S. troops overseas, and she continued to do so for over 50 years.

[11] In 2009, Dolores Hope became a centenarian; her birthday was featured on The Today Show, with her elder son saying in an ABC interview, "I think of her as love.