Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans
Dale Evans was an American writer, film star and singer-songwriter. She was the second wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.
At age 14, she eloped with her first husband, Thomas F. Fox, to whom she bore one son, Thomas F. Fox, Jr., when she was 15. A year later, she found herself in Memphis, Tennessee, a single parent, pursuing a career in music. She landed a job with local radio stations (WMC and WREC), singing and playing piano. Divorced in 1929, she took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930s to promote her singing career.
She married Roy Rogers on December 31, 1947 in Davis, Oklahoma on the Flying L Ranch where they had earlier filmed the movie Home in Oklahoma. Art and Mary Jo Rush were best man and matron of honor. The marriage was Rogers’ second and Evans’ fourth but was successful, lasting 51 years until Rogers’ death in 1998. Roy had an adopted child, Cheryl, and two biological children, Linda and Roy (Dusty) Jr., from his first marriage. Evans and Rogers together had one child, Robin, who died before her second birthday, and adopted four others: Mimi, Dodie, Sandy, and Debbie. Evans wrote the well-known song “Happy Trails“.
