ROME — Romano Mussolini, a son of Italy's World War II dictator Benito Mussolini and his last living offspring, died Friday. He was 78.

The jazz musician and painter had been hospitalized more than two weeks ago for kidney and gall bladder problems and died Friday, according to the Web site of his daughter's political party.

Romano Mussolini, one of the dictator's three sons and two daughters, was 17 when he last saw his father in April 1945, 11 days before the dictator was killed.

Jazz music was censored in Italy during the fascist regime, but the ban didn't reach the sheltered lives of Benito Mussolini's family. Romano developed a love for jazz and became one of Italy's early connoisseurs, writing reviews in magazines and teaching himself to play the piano.