Pat Boone, a legendary vocalist, topped the charts in the 1950s and 1960s and amassed a global fan base. Throughout his decades in the entertainment business, he has worked as a composer, actor, writer, television personality, motivational speaker, and New York Times best-selling author. At the age of 86, he told the Christian Post that he was writing a book about faith called “If”.

At the age of 19, he married Shirley Lee Foley, the daughter of country music artist Red Foley. One year later, he was pushed into the spotlight with his first success, a cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That A Shame.” In 1956, he had a number-one hit, and the only other artist ahead of him on the charts at the time was Elvis Presley. At the age of 23, he got his own show, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which aired weekly on ABC for 115 episodes until 1960.

“I was the youngest guy ever to have his own network music variety show, at 22,” Boone stated to Closer. His career grew from strength to strength, and he went on to become one of the most successful recording artists in the United States, appearing in films such as Journey to the Center of the Earth, State Fair, and The Greatest Story Ever Told, to name a few.

Throughout it all, his loving wife Shirley stood by his side, raising his four daughters while working as an actress and assistant director. Shirley died of complications from vasculitis, a set of illnesses that attack blood vessels, at the age of 84. The pair had been married 65 years.”Not many people in this crazy business stay married to one person for 65 years, but Shirley went to Heaven ahead of me last year and I’m on my own now,” Boone told the Christian Post.

Boone stays in the house they shared for decades, with no plans to relocate, but confesses he is grieving the loss.”I’m living here alone with a housekeeper and my dog, a little cocker spaniel,” he told Closer Weekly. “Shadow is his name.” He joked that he and his Shadow were “all alone and feeling blue,” but added, “I’m good. “Gosh, I miss [Shirley].”

Following the loss of his loving wife Pat, he told People, “We had a lovely, happy life together for 65 years. I’ve been separated from my significant other for some time. But we don’t die; instead, we relocate, and today was a moving day. “She’s changed her address is all and moved to a different mansion that I expect to join her in one day.”