Julie Sinatra: Frank’s long lost daughter
Julie Sinatra, a recent new comer to Pojoaque Valley, has been on a five decade quest to prove Frank Sinatra is her father.
Adjacent a Pojoaque Valley meadow where her two horses, Pepper and Cash grazed, Sinatra narrated her mysterious story, a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee on the table.
Sinatra is a Frank Sinatra look alike, if not clone. She has blue eyes, like Frank, and the facial similarities are startling. It’s like looking at Frank Sinatra in a woman’s body with long grey hair.
Sinatra, 66, said her mother, Dorothy Lyma-aka Hollywood actress Alora Gooding-did everything in her power to keep her in the dark about Frank Sinatra.
“Every time he came on TV, mother would steer me away from the set,” she said. “But I didn’t suspect anything until I was 17.”
She grew up thinking her father was, Tom Lyma, her mother’s first husband. It was her mother’s third husband, Carroll Hunter, who verified her suspicion that Lyma wasn’t her father and ignited her journey of self-discovery.
“When I was 17, Hunter told me my father wasn’t Tom Lyma,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Your father’s the pinko singer who’s a friend of John Kennedy.’”
Her mother, she said, would go off into a temper tantrum every time she asked her to reveal her father’s name.
As a young woman, she didn’t suspect Frank Sinatra was her father.
But, like her alleged father, she wanted a career in music. For 57 years, she has written songs and played folk guitar throughout the west..
Then, in June 1996, Julie-56 at the time- saw a CBS mini-series on Frank Sinatra. “I saw an actress playing my mother,” she said. “The actress posed in a flirty way and crossed her legs in a style that was a direct imitation of my mother.”
After she watched the mini-series, she telephoned her mother. “I told her I recognized her actions in the actress. I asked her if Frank Sinatra was my father, and, to my amazement, she said, ‘Yes.’”
Her mother, Julie said, told her she kept her father’s identity a secret “to protect her and her father.”
“Frank’s publicist-manager, George Evans, told mother her acting career would be ruined if she told Frank she was pregnant with his baby,” Julie said. “He told her there was a moral clause in the Hollywood studios and if she had a child out of wedlock it would be the end of her career.”
Evans’ less than subtle threat, plus her mother not wanting to do anything to hurt Frank’s career kept Julie’s paternity in the closet.
Julie was born February 10, 1943 and named Julie Ann Maria Lyma. On June 1, 2000, she legally changed her name to Julie Sinatra. “Anyone can legally change their name,” she said. “For me, it was just another step towards realizing my true identity.”
Julie’s mother died at the age of 87 in 2002. She said her mother kept pictures of Frank Sinatra in her lingerie door. “Mother told me she looked at the pictures every day of her life.”
Although, the story sounds improbable, there are facts that tend to validate Julie’s assertion that she is Frank Sinatra’s fourth child. Sinatra’s recognized three children are: Frank Jr., Nancy and Tina.
In Kitty Kelley’s biography of Frank Sinatra, My Way, there are statements credited to Nick Sevano, Sinatra’s personal manager, that Sinatra wanted to divorce his wife Nancy and marry Dorothy but Frank’s mother, Dorothy, pressured him to stay married.
The Rat Pack, a 1998 Frank Sinatra biography written by Lawrence J. Quirk and William Schoell, states that Frank met Gooding in Hollywood and “she threatened to unseat Nancy (Frank’s wife) as the major woman in his life.”
The biography also says that “Gooding was the first truly glamorous female that Frank got involved with and their affair lasted-on and off-for years.”
Ever tenacious in her quest to prove Frank Sinatra was her father, Julie pursued the issue into probate court. In December 2002, she received a “six figure” probate settlement.
However, this was not proof that Frank is her father. Julie contacted Sinatra’s three children in hopes they would agree to a DNA test. They refused. According to Julie, DNA testing on siblings cannot be ordered by the courts in California.
“Obviously, they didn’t want to do DNA testing because they don’t want to share Frank’s fortune,” she said. “But just one look at me and you know who my father is.”
It’s an intriguing, sad story. Julie said she never got to meet Frank, although she did everything in her power to meet him.
Now, as a Pojoaque Valley denizen, Julie seems secure in her identity. Writing my book, Under My Skin: My Father Frank Sinatra, The Man Behind The Mystique (iUniverse Books/Checker Books, 2007) was a transformative experience, she said.
“The writing of the book was a journey to identity,” she said. “It’s part biography, mystery, love story and the quest for identify. I think creativity is the key to life and identity is the key to that key.”
Sinatra brings her folk rock style of original music to El Farol on September 4 for a 7:30 p.m. performance.
“I’m putting a band together for the show,” she said. “I’ll be playing guitar and singing my original pieces, plus I’ll perform a couple of my dad’s songs.”
