23
Mar, 2016
In memory of Uni alum Frank Sinatra Jr.
[Posted March 23, 2016] Sad news of the loss of another Warrior: Frank Sinatra, Jr. (1944-2016) on March 16. He was 72. A member of Uni’s Winter ’61 class, the Associated Press obituary noted:
Sinatra Jr. followed his father into music as a teenager, eventually working for the senior Sinatra as his musical director and conductor. …
Sinatra Jr. was able to provide a link to his father’s music after his death, performing his songs and arrangements on tours and especially in Las Vegas.
“Since my father’s death, a lot of people have made it clear that they’re not ready to give up the music,” Sinatra Jr. said in the 2002 AP interview. “For me, it’s a big, fat gift. I get to sing with a big orchestra and get to sing orchestrations that will never be old.”
The AP report also remembered that “When Sinatra Jr. was 19 in 1963, three men kidnapped him at gunpoint from a Lake Tahoe hotel. He was returned safely after two days when his family paid $240,000 for his release.” The mastermind was Barry Keenan, a Uni classmate of Sinatra Jr.’s older sister, Nancy. Keenan was convicted and sentenced to life plus 75 years in prison, but was declared legally insane at the time of the crime, had his sentence reduced and was paroled in 1968 after serving 4 1/2 years.
The Sinatra family told the Associated Press that Sinatra Jr. died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest while on tour in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was expected to perform on March 17. He is survived by a son, Michael, but also by his sisters – both of whom were Uni alumni – Nancy (S ’58) and Tina Sinatra.
(Thanks to alumni Sharon [Helm] Brown, Jim Wartman and Anita Shapiro for providing the class information for Frank and Nancy Sinatra.)
Sharon (Helm) Brown
Frank Jr. was a semester behind us so he was in the class of Winter ’61. Nancy graduated in Summer ’59.