Roy rogers birth and death
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The story of Roy Rogers, the man behind the ‘King of the Cowboys’
The indelible image of Roy Rogers is as the “King of the Cowboys,” the singing do-gooder in the white Stetson, the idol of millions of kids.
Those old enough watched him on television or went to a Saturday morning picture show to see one of his more than 100 movies. They owned a Roy Rogers lunch pail and read his comic book.
By all accounts, Roy Rogers the king was the same as Roy the man.
“I never tried any fancy trick acting on screen. I was just me. The Roy Rogers way back then was the same as the one sittin’ here today,” Rogers wrote in “Happy Trails: Our Life Story,” his joint autobiography with wife and co-star Dale Evans, published a few years before his death in 1998.
Roy might have had the same upstanding standards as his counterpart on the silver screen, but his life was not spared the hardship and heartache of a Hollywood story.
Early life in Ohio
Despite the false biography pushed by the movie studio, Rogers was not born a cowboy. He wasn’t even really Roy Rogers.
He was Leonard Franklin Slye, born on Nov. 5, 1911, in Cincinnati at 412 E. Second St., a four-story red-brick tenement building. “When they built Riverfront Stadium, they bulldozed my birthplace,” Rogers used to say. “I’m claimin
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Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Singer
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Duck Run.
Father: Andrew E. Slye
Mother: Mattie Martha Womack
Wife: Lucile Ascolese (m. 1932, annulled 1932)
Wife: Arlene Wilkins (d. 3-Nov-1946 embolism, six days after the birth of Roy Rogers, Jr.)
Daughter: Cheryl Darlene Rogers-Barnett (adopted)
Daughter: Linda Lou Rogers Johnson
Son: Roy Rogers, Jr. ("Dusty", b. 1946)
Wife:Dale Evans (m. 31-Dec-1947, until his death, two sons, four daughters)
Son: Thomas Frederick Fox, Jr. (stepson)
Daughter: Robin Elizabeth (d. down syndrome age 2)
Daughter: Mary Little Doe Stanley
Daughter: Dodie Rogers Sailors (adopted)
Daughter: Deborah Lee (adopted)
Son: John David ("Sandy", adopted)
4-H Club
Christian Anti-Communist Crusade
Freemasonry MM in Hollywood Lodge No. 355, AASR 33rd Degree, Al Malaikah Shrine Temple, Los Angeles, CA
National Cowboy Hall of Fame 1976
Country Music Hall of Fame 1980
Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses 1977 (shared)
Hollywood Walk of Fame 1752 Vine St.
Kentucky Colonel
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