ROY ROGERS & DALE EVANS
THE WESTERN ICONS BUILT A LOVING HOME ON THE RANGE
Inside the Western film stars’ happy home life as parents of a diverse family.
“Every day we live is a priceless gift of God, loaded with possibilities.”
— Dale
Roy Rogers didn’t have a hair-trigger temper. But when a reporter accused the cowboy movie good guy and real-life leading lady Dale Evans of adopting their kids as a publicity stunt, he blew his top. “Up to the day he died, he said, ‘If I ever run into that guy, I’m going to punch his lights out!’” Dusty Rogers, one of the couple’s nine children, tells Closer. “Thank God my dad didn’t run across him!”
That sense of right and wrong guided Roy and Dale through their 50-year marriage, and it still resonates with their family — and fans. “I was at an event in Las Vegas recently, and several gentlemen said Dad inspired them to become policemen or teachers,” daughter Cheryl Rogers tells Closer. “I also had a couple ladies say, ‘I wanted to be your mom — she could do anything!’ And in the movies, she sure could!”
On-screen, Roy and Dale rode horses (like their trademark steeds, Trigger and Buttermilk), roped cattle and rounded up rustlers. But creatively, their first love wasn’t acting, it was music. Very different kinds of music. Roy launched the country group Sons of the Pioneers, which performs at the Grand Ole Opry to this day, while Dale was a big band singer with dreams of starring in a lavish Busby Berkeley musical.
Opposites attracted, but when they met, each was married to someone else. Roy’s wife Arline died days after giving birth to Dusty, and he and Dale eventually tied the knot and settled in at his family’s new ranch outside LA. “It wasn’t until after they got married that he brought her home and said, ‘This is your new mother,’” recalls Cheryl. “I didn’t think I needed a new mother, so I really gave her a bad time, but she was a saint.” When Dale became pregnant with daughter Robin (the couple’s only biological child together), “I was thrilled at the thought of a baby being in the house,” says Cheryl. “So [Dale] and I became friends.”
NOT-SO-HAPPY TRAILS
Roy and Dale endured tough times, but their love for each other and strong religious faith kept them together. Robin was born with Down syndrome, and “doctors said to put her in a hospital and visit her as little as possible because she’s never going to know you,” Cheryl shares. “Mom and Dad said God had a reason to give them Robin, and they brought her home — she was their baby.”
Tragically, Robin died of complications from mumps shortly before her second birthday, in 1952, and one of Roy and Dale’s adopted daughters, Debbie, was killed in a church bus accident 12 years later. “Without their bond, neither Roy nor Dale would’ve survived the death of their kids,” says Jane Stern, who co-wrote their autobiography, Happy Trails.
Dale couldn’t have any more children after Robin, so they started adopting kids. While in Louisville, Ky., for the Kentucky State Fair, Roy visited an orphanage and met a
“I’m an introvert at heart. Show business has always been hard for me.”
— Roy
5-year-old boy named Sandy. “He stuck out his hand and said, ‘Howdy, pardner!’ and Dad just melted and asked if he was up for adoption,” Dusty says. “They said yes, and Dad said, ‘Great, we’ll take him!’ ”
The parents were proud of their diverse lot. “We had a Korean girl, a Native American girl, a gal from Scotland, so we were an international blended family, which was unusual in the ’50s,” says Dusty. “Mom gathered us one day and said, ‘Look, you guys are going to have to love and respect one another. No matter if you’re yellow, black or white, you’re precious in God’s sight.’ ”
Roy and Dale always respected each other, despite their disparate personalities. “Roy was so shy, and Dale was so not shy,” says Stern. Having been raised on an Ohio farm, “he was genuinely innocent,” says Stern. “She was a perfect Texan — very forceful, over-the-top and outspoken. They made a great couple because they were so different.”
He loved doing anything outdoors. “Dad liked to snow ski and water-ski — we’d go out on a boat and fish or sit on the dock and drop a line of Velveeta cheese,” says Dusty. Roy was an avid hunter, but Dale didn’t share his passion. “They hunted geese once, and Mom shot one and didn’t kill it, so Dad wrung it by the neck to save ammo,” says Dusty. “That’s not what Mom wanted to do. The good Lord had a different idea for both of them and was able to get them together.”
Whenever Roy and Dale worked together, they were in perfect harmony. “Mom wrote ‘Happy Trails’ for him,” Cheryl says of her dad’s theme song. “He had been using a song called ‘Don’t Forget Smiles Are Made Out of the Sunshine,’ but a lot of people had recorded that, and she felt he needed a signature song.”
They also frequently brought the kids to work. “I spent my first five birthdays on the set with Dad,” Dusty says. But the kids weren’t spoiled, as Dale dealt out discipline. “She ruled the roost with an iron fist,” Dusty says. “You couldn’t sass her, or you wouldn’t be able to hear out of your left ear for a week!”
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Roy and Dale also treated their fans like family, signing autographs at the openings of Roy’s namesake fastfood restaurants and making sure every single fan letter got a response. “He practically got as much mail as Santa!” Cheryl marvels.
With age, Roy and Dale began to slow down. In 1998, Roy suffered congestive heart failure and died at 86. “The last thing he did, he stood up in bed and said, ‘Well, Lord, it’s been a long, hard ride,’ ” Dusty says.
After a stroke, Dale kept doing her A Date With Dale religious TV show even when she could no longer sing. “She said, ‘The good Lord told me all I have to do is make a joyful noise — I don’t have to be on key,’ ” says Dusty. She also died of congestive heart failure, at 88, in 2001.
Roy and Dale remain forever intertwined. “Mom’s biggest legacy is her kids,” says Dusty. “Dad’s is the millions of kids who, because of him, believe the good guy always wins.”