Inside Connie Francis’ Final Days: Singer Would be ‘Smiling’ Knowing She ‘Left This World as Big a Star’ as Ever (Exclusive)

Connie Francis would be “smiling” knowing that she “left this world as big a star” as ever following her recent TikTok success, her close friend has said.

Ron Roberts, a former journalist and current president of the musician’s label Concetta Records, confirmed Francis had died at age 87 in a Facebook post on the morning of Thursday, July 17.

Roberts wrote, “It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night.”

“I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news. More details will follow later,” concluded the message, which was also shared on Francis’ Facebook feed.

As Roberts tells PEOPLE of Francis’ death, “We were expecting it, unfortunately … they couldn’t locate where the pain was exactly,” adding that she just thought it was some trouble with her hip “that she’d been having for some time.”

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The pop star had revealed in a July 2 Facebook post that she was “back in hospital,” telling fans she’d been “undergoing tests and checks to determine the cause(s) of the extreme pain I have been experiencing.”

Francis shared another post two days later, insisting she was “feeling much better after a good night” of rest, which was the last day Roberts spoke to his close friend.

Roberts first met Francis in 1962 when he nabbed an “interview of a lifetime” with the “Who’s Sorry Now?” singer while working for the U.K. paper the Daily Express. 

“From that moment on we became friends for life,” he tells PEOPLE.

He says of her remaining positive until the end, “Absolutely … it’s been two months of the most extreme high then the most extreme low,” while acknowledging that Francis had admitted to him that she’d been feeling “absolutely terrible” around the same time as she shared the July 4 post.

Roberts tells PEOPLE his friend was a “fighter” and managed to leave the hospital for a couple of days before her death. However, she then started to “deteriorate” and was “unconscious” for at least two days before she died.

“She slipped away peacefully,” he says.

He adds of the final time he spoke to the musician, “She was obviously in pain and she was very weak. She’d been in hospital a good week by that time. She was tired. [Having all the tests done] is debilitating.”

Despite feeling tired, Roberts says that the fact that Francis had been making headlines in recent months due to her 1962 song “Pretty Little Baby” becoming a huge hit on TikTok, 63 years after she recorded the B-side, would have had her “smiling.”

“That is the incredible story, I think: That she left this world as big a star [as she ever was],” he tells PEOPLE of his friend.

Francis leaves behind a huge fanbase after nabbing her 15th and last Billboard Hot 100 top 10 to date, “Vacation,” in September 1962 — a feat that meant she boasted the most top 10 hits among women, with only Elvis Presley beating her with 16, Billboard reported. 

By the end of the ’60s, The Beatles had tallied 30 top 10 hits, while Presley had 22, and the Supremes had 18, the outlet noted. However, Francis remained the top among solo women.

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Roberts, who says he started out as a fan of the singer when he was 14 years old, tells PEOPLE, “There was no bigger-selling female on the planet at that time. In 1960, she had outsold every recording artist … truly amazing.”

In terms of how Francis would like to be remembered, Roberts says she’d be happy with this one line: “I hope I did okay.”

“She’d get a kick out of seeing that [written],” he shares.