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 Dale
Evans
Her Example Changed a Generation
By Anne Adams
Whether it was as singer, actress or author,
the young woman born Frances Octavia Smith
was a true encouragement to many as she
faced many challenges in her public life.
However, while it was these struggles as
well as her talents that enabled her to
become the inspiring figure of Dale Evans,
"Queen of the West," she was also a personal
example to other women faced with the same
challenge she encountered in mid life. And
at one time she was apparently unaware of
what she had done. A year before she died,
as described by her daughter Cheryl
Rogers-Barnett in her book Cowboy
Princess: Life With My Parents Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans. Dale was depressed as
she grieved that she wished she had done
more during her lifetime.
Cheryl was surprised. “I must have looked at
her as though she was crazy. ‘What in
heaven’s name are you talking about,’ I
said, ‘You changed the world! Who gets to do
that?’” (Cowboy Princess, p. 31)
For aside from her movies, TV appearances
and many books, perhaps one of Dale’s
greatest accomplishments was how her family
dealt with the birth of their mentally
disabled daughter.
Born on October 31, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas,
into a loving and supportive Christian
family, Dale was a "performer" from early
childhood, enjoying the attention she
received from admiring relatives for her
singing and dancing. However, she was also
bright enough to skip ahead in school, as
well as to behave and to appear older than
she actually was. At age fourteen, she
eloped with a young man and one year later,
after a divorce, she was a single mother
with a young son and working to support them
both. Early business school training enabled
her to get an office job in Memphis,
Tennessee though her real dream was to be a
radio singer. Then she got her chance to
perform when she was offered the chance to
sing on a program sponsored by her employer,
and this led to other singing engagements
and still more radio work. It was at this
time that she acquired her new name since
station management felt her name should be
easy for a radio announcer to pronounce. So
Frances Fox became Dale Evans.
Finding Memphis too small a venue to attain
her dream of being a radio and band singer,
Dale moved to Chicago where she did perform
with several "big bands" and jazz artists in
the stylish hotels and supper clubs. Then
she attracted the attention of Hollywood and
moved to the West coast to appear in several
pictures and sing on a nationally broadcast
radio program.
Then after more pictures, the idea behind a
Broadway play brought her the type of roles
that would assure her true success. In the
early 1940s, one of the biggest Broadway
hits was "Oklahoma!" which featured a
romance of a cowboy and a farm girl set in
the west. This format inspired the head of
the Republic studio to add Dale as the
female lead in the next Roy Rogers film.
Also, the studio reasoned those since Dale
was from Texas it seemed logical that she
obviously could ride a horse, rope a cow and
be a perfect cowgirl! However, it was a
faulty assumption when it soon became
evident that she couldn't ride at all. This
was demonstrated when one scene called for
her to ride at a canter down a hill
following Roy on Trigger. All she could do
was "hold on and hope" (as she wrote later),
and when she finally bounced to a stop.
Roy's comment was "I never saw so much sky
between a woman and a horse in all my born
days." At his suggestion, she took some
riding lessons.
Released in 1944, "The Cowboy and the
Senorita" was Roy and Dale’s first picture
and the first of 28 films they would make
together. Their on-screen chemistry was
evident to moviegoers, but off screen they
developed an easy friendship with each other
as well as with the other members of the
cast. Then in 1946 Roy's wife Arlene died
of complications after the birth of their
son. Then as the months passed and Roy and
Dale continued to perform in movies and also
tour, their friendship developed into
something more serious. They were married
on New Year's Eve in 1947.
Roy and Arlene had had two daughters as well
as the infant son, so Dale acquired an
instant family. Her own son was grown, so
Dale faced the challenge of being mother to
Cheryl, (born in 1942), Linda Lou (born in
1943) and Roy Jr. (called Dusty) in 1946,
and to love and comfort two little girls who
still missed their mother. Dale found
comfort in her newly revived Christian
faith, and was further encouraged when Roy
also became a Christian.
Then in 1950, Dale gave birth to Robin
Elizabeth Rogers. However, the joy of the
birth was clouded with the realization that
Robin had Down Syndrome or "mongolism" as it
was called then. At that time, such children
were often hidden because of their physical
and mental disabilities and yet Roy and Dale
decided to be publicly proud of their little
girl. "In those days people saw an offspring
as evidence of genetic weakness in the
parents," Dale wrote. "Mongoloid children
were usually hidden because society was not
willing to accept them.... But God knew that
if we would accept the challenge of caring
for Robin, he could use us to witness of his
love in new and exciting ways."
One way the Rogers family demonstrated how
Robin was a part of the family was when they
included her in family publicity photos. In
an era when such children were kept out of
sight and their existence treated with shame
and guilt, this open treatment was unusual.
However, their movie studio was displeased
with their open treatment of Robin. As Ms.
Rogers-Barnett described the studio
reaction: “To the public relations
department, a child with Down syndrome was
the ultimate in bad publicity. They were
convinced that Mom and Dad would repel their
fans by ‘flaunting’ this sick child.”
When Robin died in 1952, just before her
second birthday, Dale could not bring
herself to view her baby after death. When
Roy later described Robin in her coffin as
"a small size sleeping angel" Dale
remembered the passage from Hebrew 13:2: "Be
not forgetful to entertain strangers; for
thereby some have entertained angels
unawares." As Dale later put it: "Like
sunlight breaking through clouds after a
storm of darkness, it all became clear to
me. She had come to us from God - an angel -
with all her handicaps and frailties to make
us aware that his strength is found in
weakness. In the two years she had been
among us we had grown close as a family and
we had learned how deeply we needed to
depend on God. My job was to help deliver
that message that had been given us by an
angel." Her account was published in 1953 as
Angel Unaware with Robin telling her
own story.
The book helped increase public acceptance
of Down children and this was revealed by
the number of disabled children in the
audience at one performance. Dale described
it later: "Among the cheering youngsters
were hundreds of retarded boys and girls -
Down syndrome kids, all kinds of kids with
disabilities and handicaps ...we had never
seen them before. In those days parents
seldom brought children like that out in
public; they kept them in back rooms and
closets...but Robin's book helped change
that."
Just a few years after Angel Unaware
was published, daughter Cheryl also noticed
the change. “By the time I was fourteen,
we’d be doing a show and there would be a
whole group of kids with Down’s at the
rodeo, right up front. It was incredible to
see these kids who had been hidden away,
finally allowed to lead happy and fulfilling
lives, having fun and being thrilled by the
sights and sounds of a rodeo, just like
‘normal’ kids.” (Cowboy Princess, p.
40)
Angel Unaware
was not only a bestseller, but it has gone
into nearly thirty printings, and has been
translated into several languages. Yet Dale
received none of the profits because she had
donated the royalties to the National
Association for Retarded Children. At the
time this was a small organization, made up
of parents and physicians who sought
research funds to find answers to the
heart-breaking problem of childhood mental
disability.
“Mom’s little book gave them the money to
start the research and form a real
association…” Cheryl wrote. ”Even today I
get statements from the organization stating
that the book has brought them $7000 or
$12,000 that year and that’s fifty years
after “Angel Unaware” was first published!”
(Cowboy Princess, p. 39).
Cheryl summarizes the change: “In the world
into which Robin was born, Down syndrome
kids were something to be ashamed of and
hidden away. It’s a different world now,
thanks, in great part to my Mom.”
After Robin’s death, Dale and Roy added
other children to their family. So two
months after Robin's death Mary Little Doe (Dodie)
and John David Rogers (Sandy) joined the
Rogers clan. Then in 1954 while touring
Scotland, they met a young teenager named
Marion who performed for them as they toured
her orphanage. Though technically she could
not be adopted, she returned to California
with Roy and Dale for a visit, and
eventually she became their ward. A year
later Roy and Dale adopted Deborah Lee, a
Korean orphan.
In 1950, Roy and Dale turned from movies to
the new medium of television when they
formed their own production company to begin
"The Roy Rogers Show" which ran until 1957.
Like the Rogers' movies has been translated
into other languages and showed around the
world.
In 1964, just before her 12th birthday,
Debbie was killed in a bus accident and
Dale’s next book was a tribute entitled
Dearest Debbie. Then a year later in
1965, Sandy died accidentally while on duty
with the army in Germany, and the next
summer Dale and Roy toured Vietnam
entertaining the troops. Later Dale wrote of
her son in Salute to Sandy.
Dale and Roy appeared on TV for many years,
as well as movie and recording performances
for Roy. After Angel Unaware,
Dearest Debbie and Salute to Sandy,
Dale continued to write and publish. Among
her other books are Happy Trails: Our
Life Story (with Roy), Trials, Tears
and Triumph, In the Hands of the
Potter, and Time Out, Ladies!
among others. She also appeared in the
weekly program "A Date with Dale" on a
Christian television network.
Roy died in July of 1998, and after her own
health failed with a stroke, and heart
problems, Dale passed away on February 7,
2001. Yet while Dale may be gone, the many
Down children and adults who actively
participate in American society are part of
the her legacy.
(Cheryl Rogers-Barnett and Frank Thompson,
“Cowboy Princess: Life With My Parents Roy
Rogers and Dale Evans” – Taylor Trade
Publishing, Laniham, MD – 2003)
~*~
A native of Kansas City, Missouri , Anne
grew up in northwestern Ohio , and holds
degrees in history: a BA from Wilmington
College, Wilmington , Ohio (1967), and a MA
from Central Missouri State University ,
Warrensburg , Missouri (1968).
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