Roy Rogers

Rogers met with his first wife Grace Arline Wilkins while he was performing at the New Mexico radio station. They were married from 1936-1946 and had two children Cheryl Darlene and Roy, Jr. together. Grace died during child birth.

He was married to actress Dale Evans from 1947 until his death. Three years after their marriage, their daughter, Robin Elizabeth, was born. She was born with Downs Syndrome and died at the age of two. They adopted 7 children together.

Rogers died of congestive heart failure on July 6, 1998 in California and three years later his wife Dale Evans also passed away. He is buried at the Sunset Hill Cemetery.

Roy Rogers was born on November 5, 1911 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Andrew and Mattie Slye. His father was disgruntled with his life in the city and his job and therefore built a houseboat along with his brother and sailed up to Portsmouth.

For a more stable life, Rogers’ family bought a land in Portsmouth and parked the houseboat on the property because of the flood of 1913 in Ohio. His father tried farming and then working at the shoe factory to support the family.

Rogers went to school in McDermott in Ohio and returned back to Cincinnati with his family when he was 17. He left school in the middle to work with his father at the shoe factory.

He then became a truck driver with his father in California, living in a small house near his sister Mary and her husband’s house. But soon the Great Depression in 1930 took away everything and Roy had to live in worker campsites.

Roy realized his love for guitar and singing in the adversity of poverty and told his father that he wanted to pursue music for living. He left for Los Angeles with his Cousin Stanley Slye and performed music as ‘the Slye Brothers’.

In 1932, Rogers went on a musical tour with ‘O-Bar-O Cowboys’ and did gigs at the New Mexico radio station. In the following years, he worked with a Western cowboy music group, with whom he later formed the group ‘Sons of the Pioneers’.

Throughout 1934, the group ‘Sons of the Pioneers’ produced hit songs like ‘Cool Water’ and ‘Tumbling Tumbleweeds’ and in the following year, he made many appearances as a singing cowboys in films like, ‘Slightly Static’, ‘The Old Homestead’, etc.

Rogers adopted his screen name ‘Roy Rogers’ in 1938 and little did he know that he would soon become an American idol when he was selected to replace Gene Autry. He did movies like, ‘Under Western Stars’, ‘Billy the Kid Returns’, etc.

Throughout 1939, Rogers gave hits like: ‘Rough Riders’ Round Up’, ‘Southward Ho’, ‘Frontier Pony Express’, ‘In Old Caliente’, ‘Wall Street Cowboy’, ‘The Arizona Kid’, ‘Jeepers Creepers’, ‘Saga of Death Valley’, and ‘Days of Jesse James’.

Rogers played a supporting role in the John Wayne classic ‘Dark Command’ in 1940, which made him into a bigger box office sensation. In the same year, ‘Young Buffalo Bill’, ‘Colorado’, etc. were released, making him a cowboy craze.

Although Rogers became an American idol and an iconic cowboy superstar the moment he stepped in the industry but the peak of his success was during the time ‘The Roy Rogers Show (1951-1957)’ ran on the television.