Singer had struggled with health for more than a decade

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 9:35 a.m.

Frank Sinatra's health problems, well-publicized in recent years, actually date back to the mid-1980s and led to the cancellation of Las Vegas and Atlantic City shows.

In late June 1984, a throat ailment forced Sinatra to cancel part of a week-long engagement at the Golden Nugget. That cancellation came just days after Sinatra appeared with country-western star Willie Nelson at the opening of the downtown resort's Theater Ballroom.

According to a Sinatra spokesman, the crooner flew from Las Vegas to his home in Palm Springs to be examined by his personal physician and was told not to sing for at least 10 days.

Willie Nelson closed out the engagement alone. Tickets were reduced from $100 per person to $40.

In November 1986, Sinatra underwent an emergency operation at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to remove a 12-inch section of his large intestine.

Sinatra was suffering from diverticulitis and was in great pain from intestinal inflammation. His wife Barbara and daughters Nancy and Tina were at the hospital when he was sent into surgery.

Frank Sinatra Jr., was performing at the Four Queens when he got word of his father's illness.

Throughout the night, condition updates from Barbara were relayed from the maitre 'd station to Sinatra Jr., who was performing in the French Quarter Lounge.

The elder Sinatra had become ill while performing at the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City. He canceled his remaining shows and flew home. A month earlier, he had performed in Las Vegas.

Sinatra was hospitalized at Cedars Sinai Medical Center for eight days in early November 1996, reportedly because of a pinched nerve. Reports however, soon surfaced that he was in deteriorating health from pneumonia and heart failure. He was released two days later.

The next month, Sinatra celebrated his 81st birthday in private with his family in California while the top of the Empire State Building was illuminated in blue in his honor.

Asked what he wanted for his birthday, daughter Nancy Sinatra told ABC-TV: "You'll never guess -- another birthday. Isn't that sweet?"

He got that wish last December. But it would be his last.

An unidentified source in December 1996 told the New York Post that Sinatra was in "very poor health" and wouldn't be able to perform again.

In January 1997, Sinatra was hospitalized in a private room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment of a heart attack. It was Sinatra's third hospitalization in less than two months.

Family members visited him and the hospital was deluged with flower arrangements and get-well cards.

Sinatra was admitted to the hospital after suffering what his physician, Dr. Rex Kennamer, described as an "uncomplicated heart attack," meaning it did not cause significant heart failure or serious permanent damage.

And though there again were reports that he was near death, Sinatra steadily improved and was sent home after a brief hospital stay.

During that hospitalization, Barbara accepted an award from former first lady Betty Ford during the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Gala in Palm Desert.

"Frank is getting stronger and hopes to be home sometime this week," Mrs. Sinatra told the black-tie audience. "My husband sends his love to the gang (his friends in Palm Springs)."

The award was presented in recognition of Mrs. Sinatra's work on behalf of abused children. In 1986, Frank and Barbara Sinatra founded the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center in Rancho Mirage to treat abused children.

In February, Sinatra was hospitalized for what officials called tests. Sinatra had been taken by ambulance from his Beverly Hills home to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center accompanied by Barbara. The ambulance traveled the eight miles to the hospital without lights and siren.

Sinatra hadn't been seen in public since his heart attack. And tabloids continued to report that his demise was imminent.

Late Thursday, he was taken to Cedars-Sinai, where he died of complications from another heart attack.

See the SUN's complete section on Frank Sinatra's years in Las Vegas, with videos, photographs and stories. Follow this link:

http://www.vegaslounge.com/swinging/sinatra/