Pat Boone at 90: ‘I’m Living a Miracle’

On Saturday, June 1, more than 60 members of the family of Pat Boone will converge on his Southern California home to celebrate the entertainment icon’s 90th birthday.

“I tell you, I feel like I’m living a miracle,” Boone told Newsmax days before his “big event,” “I mean, it’s dreamlike because the numbers to me are not real.”

Pat Boone. More than 70 years after he began his career singing, acting, and writing songs, his name still evokes so much: clean-cut good looks and a beautiful wife and four daughters; hit songs ranging from his signature “Love Letters In The Sand” to the lyrics from the theme of Exodus; acclaimed roles in major films such as Journey to the Center of the Earth and State Fair; a top-rated TV show, the Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, which ran for 115 episodes in 1957-58 and featured stars such as Pearl Bailey and Johnny Mathis — and in which Boone starred while doubling as a straight-A student at Columbia University; a passionate commitment to conservative candidates and causes — notably repeal of the Estate Tax, with which the singer has been closely identified; and his lifelong commitment to Jesus Christ.

And, of course, when one hears Boone’s name, what comes to mind are his storied white buck shoes.

A lifelong teetotaler and non-smoker, Boone spoke to Newsmax shortly after his regular workout in a gym and a week after he staged a 90-minute concert and played golf in San Juan Capistrano.

He proudly recalled how “Frank Sinatra recorded 1500 songs and all classics, Bing Crosby — my role model — recorded 2000, and I’ve recorded 2700 songs. That’s more than anybody who ever lived or ever will.” As Boone approaches his tenth decade, he is working on what he calls “a Bob Dylan-like song, and I’m trying to get in touch with Bob to see what he thinks of it.”

Throughout his life, the Nashville, Tennessee-raised singer has made no secret of his Christian faith and study of the Bible. And Boone, in his 60-plus year marriage to Shirley Foley (who died in 2019) and in raising their four daughters, has lived the things he talked about.

“I think what we now think of as conservative is really what we used to think of as mid-American,” he told us, “I mean, we were Bible-believing. We were one nation under God. More people were going to church and temple and worship. We all wanted morality and we believed in the Constitution, and as the final arbiter, the Supreme Court. These were Americans values. And I was considered an all-American boy.”

But the singer quickly noted that “these days, polls say that fewer than 50 percent of Americans go to any place of worship, and may or may not pray. If they pray, they don’t know if anybody’s hearing in a heaven or hell. They have no idea. They just hope they’ll go to heaven but they have no way of trying to govern that. Religion is pushed to the back seat. In fact, organized religion is under tremendous ongoing attack by liberal proportions in our society. They want things that the Bible clearly condemns to be venerated and celebrated.”

For his part, Boone has steadfastly sought to pass on his values on to his four daughters, 16 grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren, noting, “and my grandchildren are still having children, so there are more coming!”.

In politics, Boone is a lifelong Republican and a proud conservative. He recalled getting to know Ronald and Nancy Reagan when their children went to the same Southern California grammar schools as the Boone daughters.

“When Ron Reagan decided to run for governor [of California] in 1966,” Boone told us, “Only a few of us came out early to support him — [actors] Victor Jory, Wendell Corey, [actress] Piper Laurie, and me. Jory, Corey, Laurie, and Boone — it sounds like a shady law firm! But when he caught on, others joined us — the Duke [John Wayne], Roy Rogers and Dale Evans — and then, of course, he won. The ‘Rat Pack’ [Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and their friends] were all with Pat Brown [the Democrat governor Reagan unseated], but after Reagan turned out to be such a successful governor, they supported him for re-election, and that was great. But Ron always knew who was with him from the start.”

Indeed, when Boone was in Michigan campaigning for then-Rep. Guy Vander Jagt in 1980, then-GOP presidential nominee Reagan was in the area and invited him to join him and actor Charlton Heston for dinner at their hotel. As Boone put it, “there I am with the next president and Moses [Heston’s famed role in The Ten Commandments] — my friends, and they just wanted to talk about show business!”

Boone has helped two generations of conservatives through appearances and with robo-calls, in which a recording of the singer comes on urging voters to support a particular candidate.

One cause that especially motivates Boone is repeal of the Estate Tax, which he calls “unfair and despicable.”

On this topic, Boone speaks from highly personal experience. When his father Archie, who ran a contracting business, died, his estate tax was so steep that Pat was forced to pitch in and pay it. There are unhappy stories after death for many Americans who, in Boone’s words, “don’t have children who have the wherewithal to pay their estate tax.”

The entertainer’s personal dealings with the tax led him to Jim Martin and the SixtyPlus Seniors Association, which is dedicated to repealing what Martin dubs “the death tax.” Boone quickly became SixtyPlus’s national spokesman and, under Martin’s tutelage, sought out and campaigned for House and Senate candidates who would support repeal.

Boone says he “will always be indebted to Jim, for his making it possible for me to have some influence on getting conservative people elected to office which I think has helped America reach where we are not that we’re where we want to be, but has kept us from fading.”

Among contemporary politicians, Boone is a major admirer of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., whom he characterized as a “deeply devoted, strong man. He’s taken positions that even the other conservatives don’t like, but like Reagan, he knows as strongly conservative as you might be, sometimes you have to give a little to get a lot.”

Of former President Donald Trump, he admired “how he was governing, not how he lived his personal life, or everything he said, or how he said everything, but what he was doing for the country. My four daughters and their husbands were strongly opposed because they didn’t like him personally. And they let me know they all voted for [former President] Barack Obama. I said ‘that’s your business and that’s fine.’”

One particular passion of Pat Boone is Israel, which comes from his lifelong study of the Bible and his belief that the similarities of Jews and Christian transcend any differences. He wrote the lyrics for the theme from the movie Exodus, and the song is considered a second anthem to Israel.

Boone actually wrote the lyrics on the back of a Christmas card in 1959 and, he proudly noted, the card will be placed in the Hall of Righteous Gentiles in Israel where Oskar Schindler and others who helped the Jews are honored.

“All Jews are my brothers and sisters, whether they know me that way or not,” he said.

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a personal friend and fan of Boone’s and, in fact, calls him “Speedy” after the 1962 song Boone wrote about the cartoon character Speedy Gonzales. Netanyahu, Boone told us, “has to defend Israel against an enemy that is so craven and horrible [Hamas terrorists] that they are forcing him into a situation that to get to them they have to go through hostages. It’s an impossible situation. And he’s doing what he has to do while he’s being attacked from the north as well. But at least I personally am happy to know that he and I are on the same page.”

From Reagan to Netanyahu, from Crosby to Bob Dylan, from death tax repeal to support for Israel, Pat Boone has known so many and seen and done so much — all the while delighting Americans with his songs and good nature.

Does he have any worries at 90?

“I’m just worried that one day I will wake up and find I am only 30 and all of this was a dream,” he laughed.

Mary Barnes, a Newsmax intern and Southern Methodist University intern, contributed to this article.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.