October 24, 2023 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Roy “Dusty” Rogers was one of 9 children raised by Roy Rogers (“King of the Cowboys”) and Dale Evans (“Queen of the West”). He shares his story of growing up with two of the most iconic parents in American cultural history.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the All American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Up next to the story of a
name you all know, Roy Rogers, told by Roy Dusty
(00:33):
Rogers Junior. Dusty has been acting and performing almost since birth.
The only natural born son of Roy, he was raised
by Roy and his wife Dale Evans, along with their
eight children. Roy and Delle were known to millions of
Americans through TV, radio and dozens of beloved Western movies.
As a small child, Dusty appeared in his parents TV show,
(00:56):
The Roy Rogers Show, Here's Dusty to share the behind
the scene story of what it was like growing up
in the home of the King of the Cowboys and
the Queen of the West.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
People say, well, when did you know your dad was famous?
And I said, well, I really didn't know he was
famous at all till I was probably five. I mean
I went to the movie set with him when I
was two. I spent every birthday I think I can
think of, from two to five on the movie set
with Dad. Then all of a sudden, the reality came
in that this man does something other than just movies.
(01:30):
He's very popular with the populace, with the people, and
of course when we would go out on the road
with him, all of a sudden and we're surrounded by
thousands of people and especially young kids who loved him,
and it was a little bit difficult to swallow sometimes.
You know, you want you want your mom and dad yourself.
You don't want to share him with anybody, you know,
when you're young like that. I mean, there, wait a minute,
that's my mom and dad. What are you doing? You know,
(01:52):
So it was it was difficult in that way, and
I think all of us grew up under that, under
that veil of constant being photographed, constantly, being on the road,
constantly being Royan Dale's son or daughter. You know, it
didn't matter if he were adopted or not. You were
Royandale's son or Royandale's daughter. Dale is my mother, I mean,
(02:14):
my biological mother passed away when I was just a
few days old. I never got to know my atro mother.
I was born by cesarean section and she got an
embolism in her system, which at the time in the forties.
This was nineteen forty six, and they didn't have any
way of detecting blood clots in this blood clott had
formed during the cesarean operation, and it just kind of
(02:36):
set dormant there in her system because there was no
way of detecting them, and they didn't get the ladies
up and walk around like they do to today after
childbirth to help us all these clots away. So this
one just set dormant in mom's system for about four
days five days, and when she became more active, so
did the clott It began to move through her system
and unbeknownst to anybody, and actually I was on the
(02:58):
bed ready to come home, and Dad was on his
way to get us, and Mom just this embolism hit
her heart and she just her eyes bat rolled back
at her head and she just fell back on the
bed and was gone that quick, no indication at all
that there was a problem. So, you know, of course,
for my dad it was devastating. He has three kids,
(03:19):
and King of the Cowboys in nineteen forty six was
the height of the man's career, and then all of
a sudden, overnight he finds himself a widower with three
young uns and absolutely nobody in his life at that
point to take care of us kids. So he had
to really jump on at a bad time of his
life and try to get somebody in to take care
of us, and he hired nannies to watch out over us.
(03:40):
So I never got to know my real mom. And
then when I was about a year and a half old,
he married Dale and she just kind of stepped in
and really took over with us kids, and we just
loved her death, I mean all of us did. I
think Cheryl had a little bit of a problem with
her early on, because Cheryl was kind of she was
the first one in the family. Dad at her first,
(04:00):
and because they didn't think that my mom and Roy
could have children, so they adopted Cheryl, and she was
kind of the queen bee. She was the one that
the oldest one, and she wanted to be the mom,
I mean she did. She wanted to take care of
me and Linda Lou and she just thought she'd step
into that role after Mom and Pat what she called
her mommy, passed away, and of course it didn't happen.
(04:23):
Dad needed some adults to do it. So but when
she married, when Dad married Dale, because it was kind
of funny because Cheryl would always get between Dale and
Roy at events and stuff to try to keep them separated.
But you know, it was just the good Lord. It
was meant to be, and it didn't work out. But
Dale was my mother. I mean she came in and
(04:43):
when I was a year and a half old, and
all of us kids just loved her to death. And
I never knew any other mother, So she was you know,
mother means a lot of things to different people. There's
your birth mother, and then of course you don't know
much about your mother un till you get older. Well
that's where I would and Dale was my mom by
that time. So I couldn't ask for a better one,
couldn't ask for a better one. Dad was an old
(05:06):
country boy and things didn't really matter to him, and
he he just loved to hunt and fish and do
what he want to do. Dale and the Westerns. He
Dad fit into the Westerns just like a pair of
you know, like a pair of good boots. Mom didn't.
She could care less about the Western. She was an angeneue.
She wanted to be. She wanted to be the big
(05:27):
band singer. She came out to California to work in
Buzzy Berkeley's musicals. And that's what she wanted to do,
big band singer, you know. And they sent her out
to audition with Dad and on they were looking for
a Fox was actually Republic was looking for a new
leading lady for Dad, someone who could sing, do everything.
(05:48):
And so they called over to Fox and they said,
do you do you have anybody that might we need
a young leading lady for Roy Rogers And they said, well,
sure we do. Her name's Dale Evans. And they said, well,
the thing is, she has to be beautiful, she has
to sing like a bird, and she has to be
able to set a horse. She needs to learn her
(06:08):
she needs to be able to ride. Oh yeah, Dale,
to fit she some texts should fit the boy. Mom
had not been on a horse since she was three
four years old on her mom farm ram and dad farm.
So but they and again the good Lord stepped in.
They s and her mom went out the location, you know,
a dressed to the nines, thinking she was gonna try
out for this music thing. And she showed up in
(06:31):
a long dress and thinking she was gonna play. And
the next thing that no, the director said, Dale, we
want you to get up on this horse. We want
you to ride at the end of the street and
sit there with Roy and Gabby and big Boy Williams.
And when I throw my hat down, I want you
all to ride to the camera. And when you get close,
just pull up on your horse and we'll see how
you look on a horseback. So she did she got
on a horse. I mean mom was Mom was a trooper.
(06:53):
I mean, like that said, you can tell a textan,
but not much. You cannot tell Dale. She can't do
something because she'll just prove you wrong every time.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And you're listening to Dusty Rogers tell the story of
his mother and father, Roy and Dale Evans, and my goodness,
this happens so often in American life, where women would
die of complications from childbirth and so many children die.
When we return more of the story of Roy Rogers,
as told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior. Here on our
(07:24):
American Stories. Here are our American stories. We bring you
inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories
from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are
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(07:45):
If you love our stories in America like we do,
please go to our American Stories dot com and click
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us keep the great American stories coming. That's our American
Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American stories
(08:12):
and with Dusty Rogers telling the story of his mother
and father. Roy and Dale Evans want to be Big
band singer. Dale first met Roy Rodgers in nineteen forty
four on the set of a western movie where she
was screen tested riding a horse. Let's pick up here
with Roy Rodgers Junior again also known as Dusty.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
She got on a horse and they took off running
and it came to the camera and the guy dropped
his hat and they pulled up and when they did,
the horse just jammed Mom into the saddle just I mean,
he just pounded her because she didn't know how to
set it right, and it broke, knocked the caps off
of her teeth and big Boy Williams horse set on
(08:58):
her teeth. After the end they were all get and
had she had ev and redone. But the producer said, well, Dale,
that wasn't too bad. Well Roy, what do you think that? Said?
He said, I think it was Billy Whitney at the time,
and he said, Billy, I swear I have never seen
so much sky between a woman's rand and a saddle
(09:21):
in my mind. But she learned to ride and and
that's and I think she did something totally against what
she really wanted to do, because at that time, you
did what you needed to do to make money to survive.
And but she fit in so well and did it
did it so on Dad, he just had to be himself.
(09:41):
But Mom was totally opposite. But she learned to adapt
and and go along with what the thing was, which
was western and cowboy songs, and that's way away from
big band and big orchestra music. But Mom was a
trooper and just always whatever the situation was, she stepped
in and said I'm gonna do it, and and did
(10:04):
well she you know, I mean, after the birth of Tom,
I'm sure. And then of course her husband left her
when she was just just young, and of course then
she was, like I said, starving and trying to make
a career. So she I think she she always longed
for child and so when she married Roy and and
and they had a a a chance to to have
a child of their own, you know, they jumped right
(10:25):
on it. And and then of course when Robin was
born and and found out that that she had Down's syndrome. Again,
it was a shock originally, you know, I mean, you're
never ready for that. But then I I it's settled
in that this is a lovely, y human being that's
from both of us. You know, there must be a
(10:46):
reason why they didn't know. Nobody knew at that time
what caused downs, and they recommended that, uh, they put
her an institution. And the doctor said, you need to
put her institution, and Dad said, you kidding me, We're
not putting her institution. She says, this is our child.
We're gonna take her home and love her. And so
against the doctor's orders, they did. They took her home
(11:08):
and made us. Dad built a special area for her
and protect her from us kids, you know, cause she
was very fragile. And but even during the time that
Robin was there and very ill, they did, both of
them just loved that little girl to death. I mean,
it was just it was part of them, and and
and sh and they wanted her they of course, we
all wanted her to survive. With the doctor said that
(11:30):
probably she wouldn't, but you don't know that, you know,
have had we had the medications they have today for
Down syndrome children. Robin probably could have lived in her
forties or fifties, We don't know. But it was a
gift from God. And and Dad always says, if you
can never give a gift up, you never throw it away.
(11:51):
A gift is a gift no matter who gives it to,
you keep it. And uh and and she was not
only gift to to royan Dale, but a gift to
all of us kids who got a chance to know her.
I was four and five, you know at the time,
and I couldn't physically, you know, roll wrestle with her
like I really wanted to. But she and I communicated.
(12:12):
Uh she couldn't speak, of course, but we communicated it
with She had certain giggles and last she'd do and
and uh she would we would play hide and seek.
I'd get under the crib, you know, and I'd reach
up and touch your arm, and she'd giggle and roll
try to see where I was and and h that's
the kind of play we had. But uh, she was
just a sweetheart. I still see her eyes and her
looking through the wars of that crib today. I mean,
(12:33):
she just was. And that's why those kids are so
special to me today. My son Dustin and I we
work with a group out of Texas called DRI which
is Development Resources, Inc. And they they have group homes
for kids that are that have downs and we work
with help raising money because a lot of them now,
a lot of those w I tell people that theyre
(12:53):
y you ha y I people bring bring 'em to
the show the down Center of kids, and and I'll say,
you know how lucky you are that you have one
of these special children. I said, ID don't give 'em
to everybody. You know, he picks and choose who he
wants to have 'em, and they're his angels. And doesn't
matter what color they are. They all have the same look,
(13:13):
and they all love music and they love people. They
have their ups and downs like everybody does. You know,
their their their moments of of angry and and in
the little little fits and stuff. But they love you unconditionally.
And the only other person I know does that is
either a dog or God that loves you unconditionally. I mean,
no matter what happened. And uh, And that's what's special
(13:35):
about 'em? And so they've always been special to me
and always will be. I mean, they're just they're just wonderful,
wonderful gifts from God. And of course Mom and Dad
knew that from from the beginning that it was a
gift and they and that's why Mom wanted to write
about her. She she was puzzled for the longest time
on how, M how I need to tell Robin's story
about I don't know how where do I? Where do
(13:57):
I go? And so she sat on a park bench
in New York and said, God, I don't you know,
give me some direction on on how to write this book,
This angel Unaware a book I want to write. And
she said it was just an amazing thing that uh,
the Good Lord put on her heart. Well, don't don't
you tell the story? Let Robin tell the story? Angel.
(14:18):
Let a where The book that Mom finished, uh after
Robin passed away, had a huge impact on a lot
of different people. And I think the biggest impact it
really had were on the families that were fortunate enough
to have Down syndrome children, because it was always looked
on as a stigma, and I think people looked at
(14:41):
down syndrome children as something that they did wrong. It
was their fault, not realizing that God made it possible
for them to have one and that it was gonna
change their life in the future. And and and uh,
like I say, it only gives them to a few.
But I think having Robin's story told by Robin herself
(15:04):
that she was okay, that yes, that she had passed
on and she'd moved, but the God sent her for
a short time to be a blessing to Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans. That was her job. God sent her
there to do that. And I think the reality for
a lot of folks who have down syndrome children, they
(15:26):
never thought of it that way because the public wouldn't
let them. The public looked down syndrome children as less
than perfect. They're not, you know, And instead of coming
up and saying what a beautiful child, they would come
up and say, oh, I'm so sorry. Why they didn't know?
They didn't know, they don't. And so the book allowed
(15:51):
families to bring out those children with them in public,
and when the public could actually see the beautiful smiles
and the love of music and the excitement in their eyes.
And even though a lot of them couldn't talk. There
was something there that that had you had not seen before,
and Mom and Dad and us too. I mean when
(16:14):
I was young, when I was only five, I didn't
see any down some syndrome children at out at all
up until after the book, probably a year or so
after the book was released. You started Mom started looking
and seeing them in the audience at where they were
because they felt that, well, if Royan Dale can be
(16:36):
blessed with one of these children and take them home
and love them, why shouldn't we And why shouldn't I.
This child is special and they're a blessing, So why
shouldn't I take something that I'm proud of out and
let them experience the world which is cruel sometimes, But
(16:56):
they're no different than anybody else. They they need to
have a chance at life like you and I have.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And you've been listening to Roy Rogers Junior, who goes
by the name Dusty, telling the story of his mother
and father and also his sister Robin. And my goodness,
what a story he told about just his mother's just
can't do spirit, and actors and actresses of the time
they just always took the work, and my goodness, the
storytelling on Robin or down syndrome, child of Roy and Dale.
(17:28):
I wanted to tell Robin's story. Dale prayed to God
in a New York park bench, but I don't know how,
and it later we learned that God had sent her
to the earth for a short time to be a
blessing to Roy and Dale. When we come back, more
of the story of Roy and Dale Rogers as told
by their son, Dusty Rogers here on our American Stories.
(18:08):
And we continue with our American stories and with Dusty
Rogers telling the story of his parents, Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans. Let's pick up where Dusty last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I remember when Robin. I mean many times I could
see Mom and Dad holding each other and crying because
she had good days and had really bad days. And
I think for them it was a challenge to do
there every day, be in front of a camera, be smiling,
(18:41):
being doing this when they know part of them is
at home slowly dying. I think in their back of
their mind they were hoping that she would come through
it all. But she was so frail and had and
us kids sometimes we couldn't play with her because we
had a cold or whatever. You know, so it was
it was a challenge that way. And they had a nurse,
(19:03):
uh that took care of her all the time. There
was somebody with her all the time. So I think
there was some questioning of of God, you know, w
what what purposes? You know what we know that you've
given this child to us? What? But f but why? What?
What is it that you want us to do? What
is it that? And and that's what Mom cu she said.
(19:24):
For the longest time, I couldn't put the book together
because I didn't know, I didn't know what my what
the purpose was. And after she had passed on, and
I remember Mom and dad the day she died, and
Mom and Dad I think they spent at least eleven
ten to eleven hours out in the carport just holding
each other and crying. And I s we'd look out
(19:45):
the window and they'd just be sobbing holding each other.
And I got to thinking, you know, wow, I mean, uh, ok,
you know again, five years old, you know, couldn't understand
why we couldn't see Robin. You know, we didn't know
what happened. They didn't know quite how to tell us,
I guess, And it was a rough It was a
rough go and that uh, and how mom and dad
(20:05):
did what they did and and still s still say,
Royan Dale, and still do the obligations that they had
in life. Uh, and still raise us kids and take
care of us and let us know that you know,
Robin was special, and you know this isn't gonna happen
to all of you. You're not gonna all pass away now, now,
(20:26):
don't you know she had brought you know? And to
try to explain that to your kids and and make
it sound not so bad, but yet it was devastating
to them. Uh, it's a phenomenal thing. And I think
they questioned the grace of God, but yet it was
the grace of God who got him through it. Somebody
(20:46):
asked me one time, They said, roy when's the first
time you really realized that the kids of America really
looked up to you? And he said, in nineteen forty one,
playing Madison Square Garden. He said, I was walking back
by the cattle choots, and around the corner come this
little guy about four years old, dressed exactly like me.
He said, That's when I knew that I had to
(21:09):
keep my life in line and that I owed these
kids something because they're looking up to me. I can't
say one thing and do another. And so he made
a pack then with himself. Then good Lord, I'm sure
that he would do everything he could to keep his
image so that kids could look up to him and
mean something. And of course then that's and he was
(21:30):
hitting hospitals even then and then and then when the
polio thing was so bad in the forties and fifties,
he would go to the hospital. He was fighting all
the time in his mind, because I know he believed
in God, but he was he was angry at God somewhat,
I think, because he couldn't understand why, if we have
(21:50):
such a trusting and just and merciful God, why he
would allow children of all things, his youngest creations, to
come into this life and be attacked by some terrible
disease or born with deformities or born I'm sure he
saw downs kids and at that time too, and so
it was hard for him for a long time. He
(22:10):
couldn't understand why, it couldn't he couldn't reconcile, reconcile why,
And so he was almost driven to the fact that
he wanted to go and see those kids and entertain him,
and many many stories I could tell you. The one
that hits the most is is you know, and a
lot of the kids who had polio and the forties
(22:31):
were put into iron lungs. They their lungs were undeveloped
and they needed help, and so these machines iron lungs
would help him breathe a little bit. Of course. They
were in this big iron tube with their heads sticking
out and laying flat, of course, and looking up through
a mirror that goes that direction, so they could at
least see. And Dad would would go there and he
(22:53):
would he would go up to the ward and he'd
bring the pioneers with him and they'd sing a couple songs,
and then he would Dad would actually go to each
iron lung and get around beside the child instead of
looking at him through a mirror, so he could get
eye contact with him, and he'd lean down and talk
to him, every one of 'em a little bit. And uh,
(23:13):
and he'd say, you know, billy, I know you're having trouble,
you know, but you know, all good cowboys are tested.
You know, you got you gotta buck up a little bit,
you gotta, you know, the cowboy way has not to
lay here and worry Fred about it. It's to fight
and get out of here. And he said, I'm gonna
help you. And he would he would bring these gun
belts with him, kids, gun belts with him in boxes
and he would d he would hang the gun belt
(23:34):
up on the mirror. And of course people thought, well,
that's cruel. This poor little kid. He's can't you got
his y, His head is all he's got out and
Roy's giving him a gun belt. What is that? But
then Dad would say, when you get out of this
iron lung, if you fight hard enough and and and
you pray hard enough, you'll get out. You'll eventually get out.
And what I want you to do is I want
you to wear this gun belt and I want you to,
(23:56):
you know, play cowboy like all the rest of the
boys and girls doing a cunt. And then someday I
want you to come to Hollywood and see me and desin.
I'll tell you we've had a lot of over the
last you know, I've had a band for forty years
and I have seen so many people that have come
that were in iron lungs. In the forties, the dad
(24:17):
come to the hospital, put up that gun belt and
they got out, and of course some didn't, but most
of them got out, and they still have a gun belt.
So in his in his somewhat little childish way, and
I think that's why kids loved him so much. He
was as big a kid at heart that they were.
(24:37):
If he thought, if he gave him just a little
of encouragement on the level, that they would understand. And
if Away tells you to do it, especially in the forties,
you did it and it worked really well. Yeah, many
of the kids come to the show even today. In
the last this last couple of years, I've had I've
had three in the last couple of years. I try
to keep track. They still have the gun belt and
(25:02):
it is their most prized position. They say, if it
wasn't for this gun belt, and it's most of the
time it's in shatters. I mean it's just tatters of
the leathers weren't off. All the spots have come off
and stuff, and say, I wore it everywhere. I know,
wre to bed. My mom used to get so mad
at me because I didn't want to wear it in
the bathtub and they'd stop me from doing it. But
it was their most prized position and still is today.
(25:28):
Mom knew that they didn't want to have another child.
They didn't want because at that time they didn't know
what caused downs. They thought it might be an rh
blood factor problem one negative and one positive and their
blood type, but they weren't sure. So when they lost
Robin just before the second birthday, it had to be different.
(25:49):
I mean, I know it was very difficult because I
saw it. But they got back up on their feet
and they the Good Lord granted him grace and they
were able to get back up and go. But there
still was a void. And they just decided, well, if
we can't have any more of our own children because
we don't know if we'll have another down syndrome child
or not, then we'll adopt.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And you're listening to the son of Roy and Dale Evans,
Dusty Rogers. That's Roy Rogers Junior telling the story of
his parents, particularly after the loss of his sister Robin
at the age of two. He was five at the time,
and he remembers looking outside his home and seeing his
parents often just hugging and crying, And what a thing
(26:31):
to watch as a five year old watching your own
parents cope with grief and then having to come right
back in the house and raise those kids and hit
the line as professionals, as actors, as superstars and just
sort of put that grief behind and move on. And
the stories of him visiting these kids with iron lung
machines and parking by their sides, making eye contact and saying,
(26:54):
all good cowboys are tested, finding words of encouragement for
these kids, this big international suit star, having this art
for kids and questioning God. As Dusty said, my parents
questioned the grace of God, but the grace of God
also got them through the ordeal. And when we come
back more of Roy Rogers' story and his bride Dale
(27:18):
as told by their son Dusty Rogers. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories in
(27:39):
the story of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as told
by their son, Roy Rogers Junior aka Dusty. Let's pick
up where he last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Dad felt bad for me because I had any sisters
and I had no brother. Unbeknownst to me, they went
on a trip to Ohio and then went down from
Ohio down to Kentucky, uh down to Louisville, and they
had heard of a a orphanage. Dad would always invite
orphanages to bring their kids over for the show. And
they had had a chance to visit one of them,
(28:13):
and and uh in Covington, Kentucky, and they ran across
this little boy, and Dad was going around shaking hands
to all the little boys, and Sandy just stuck out
his hand and said, howld her partner, and Dad just
kind of fell in love with him. You know, he
was just a little he was stunned in his growth,
and he had all kinds of problems. He slept in
a chair since he was born. Practically he didn't know
what a bed was, and and they treated him pretty badly.
(28:35):
So they, you know, they said, this is the guy
we gotta get for for for Dusty. And then they
stopped by Hope Cottage on the way back home and
they adopted a little American Indian girl chalked out Indian,
very little dog, called her Dody. So I'm coming to
the airport, uh, thinking I'm gonna meet mom and dad,
(28:57):
And down off the airplane comes to Dad. He's carrying
this little kid, and Mom's carrying a little girl, little
baby girl. I got to thinking, Hey, what's going on?
You know, and uh, and I've got pictures of our
first meetings. Sanday I first meeting, and I did not
(29:18):
like him. I thought, oh, wait a minute, just a minute,
now I was the prince here. Now all of a sudden,
I got somebody horning it on my spot and mom,
Mom explained, now, this is your new brother. You know.
His name is John David Harry Hardy, but we're gonna
call him Sandy. And this is Dodie. We're little Mary
Little she's gonna be your sister. Well, Dody I fell
in love with right away. But I had our time
(29:38):
with Sandy for a while. But uh, we grew to
be really good budds. And I protected him a lot
because he was smaller than me, and he was you know,
guys were picking on him all the time, and he
had a lot of physical problems. And uh, but there
was a there was and then of course they that
wasn't enough, you know. They a little later on they adopted, well,
(30:00):
got a little Marion from they had gone in nineteen
fifty four, they went to uh to England and Scotland
and Ireland and fell in love a little girl named Marion,
or her name of Marian Fleming and wanted to adopt
her and couldn't because she uh uh international adoptions weren't allowed,
so they became her foster parent. And uh then they
(30:21):
adopt a little girl. Uh they wanted to adopt a
little girl. There was a uh one of the the
ban on international adoptions was listed and lifted in the sixties.
They adopted a little girl from Seoul, Korea. Her name
was in Ili, called her debut Lee and uh so
it just kept going on and on until they ended
up with a nine children total. And uh and uh, boy,
(30:42):
it was a bunch, I'll tell you, it was a bunch.
And you know, six six months old, six and a
half months old in nineteen you know, Tom was nineteen
twenty years old at that time. Aunt tellya we were.
It was wild and crazy, it really was. But uh,
Dad pulled us all together, said, hey, you're all the
same God's eyes, you're the same in your mother's in
my eyes, and you all be our kids, and you're
(31:04):
gonna all be treated equal. It doesn't matter if you're male, female,
or black, brown, or blue. You know, you're in the
Rogers family now and you didn't ask to be, but
here you are. And so deal with it, and we did.
We moved to Apple Valley in about nineteen sixty five,
I think this was a year we moved up there.
(31:26):
And the reason we moved was a little Debbie, the
Korean orphan the year before sixty four, was on her
way back from Mexico. The church had done a good
willed mission down there were kind of kind of out
of sister church and the bus blew a left front
tire and it came across the highway on down their
(31:48):
ocean side and was hit head on by a station wagon.
Of course, Debbie and her friend were sitting right in
the front seat on the right side, and that's exactly
where it hit, and of course Debbie was killed again.
My dad was in the hospital at the time. He
had uh his neck fused and and the the third vertebrae,
fourth vertebrae fused together. He had staff infection. It was
(32:12):
in bad shape in the hospital and Debbie was killed
while he was there. And Mom, I mean, poor Mom
was just I mean, she was a basket case. And
they tried to keep all the news away from Dad.
Art went to the hospital and tried to keep him
from seeing anything or reading anything until everybody could be told.
And so long story short, the Chatsworth place for my dad.
(32:35):
I loved it there, but for my dad became a
sad place. It was where Debbie was, and and you know,
he passed her bedroom every day, and Debbie was kind
of his favorite. Debbie was very outgoing and h and
would comba set and Comba's hair, you know, for hours,
and just you know, put curlers in it and stuff.
And she just she was kind of his favorite. And
(32:58):
she just and and he just she just play it
to the hilt with him, and UH had a very
close bond. So it was very difficult, you know, to
come home at night and see her room and see
her things. And so Dad just decided, we've we've got
to move. We gotta get out of here. I, this
isn't the same place that I remember. And so we
moved to Apple Valley in nineteen sixty five. I was
(33:21):
already there. I had moved up early. I was there
two or three weeks, well actually a little longer that
before Mom came up. They came up around Christmas time
and I started there in September, I think in school
senior year in high school. Mom and Dad moved, which
was not a whole lot of fun for me, but
I again learned to da adapt okay. But then Mom
and Dad came up and uh and uh they got
(33:43):
little house on the highway. There was beautiful that Apple
Valley was very quiet and about eight thousand people and
and everybody knew Royandale that kind of left him alone,
which was nice. And uh, everything was going really great.
And then on October thirty first, my mom's birthday in
nineteen sixty five, got a call from the d DV
(34:03):
Defense Department that my brother Sandy had choked to death
while serving with the army in Germany. Well here we
go again, you know, and Dad especially took it really bad.
We got I think both of 'em. Well Mom did too,
but uh, Dad was especially upset over it. And uh
(34:24):
again questioning, you know how much how much more God
do you have to lay on us before you know it? Well,
God doesn't give you choices, He doesn't tell you why
thy you know y and you may not know the
reason for years. But out of those deaths came from
beautiful books that Mom had written. The cowboys had us code. Uh,
(34:48):
every cowboy had their own ten codes. Dads was different
than hoppies. Hoppies was different than gene dads. Was based
on the Bible, and it was based on the Ten Commandments,
but it was in child in ch words, but that
they could understand it. You need to go to Sunday
school every Sunday, and you need to weigh your parents,
and you you need all your food, no waste any
and there were you know, I'm just basic, just basic
(35:11):
things that kids could. They wanted to aspire to because
they love the men that told them that they needed to.
And it was the same when I was a care
everybody who wanted to be a cowboy, even the little
girls want to be a cowboy I want. They would
buy Roy Rogers stuff. They wouldn't buy the Dale Evans outfits.
They wanted Roy. We don't have that today. There's nobody
out there today to tell our children that that's wrong.
(35:36):
What you're doing is wrong. You need to put that
up and you need to This is where you need
to go and make them believe it. There there's no
reality anymore. So I just wish that the producers and
directors and and and people in the media today would
(35:56):
take an account that they're still young. They may be
and they may have a spendable income when they're thirteen.
Maybe I don't know, but the target audience for most
all of almost everything today is seventeen to twenty seven, thirty,
maybe forty if you're lucky. Most of it's younger than
that because we've gotten away. We've gotten away from what's important,
(36:19):
and that's the family unit. My mom used to say
to us. See, when the family unit fails in this country,
we are in big trouble, and you can see it
every day. That isn't the way this country was founded.
It wasn't the thing that our forefathers fought for. It
isn't what the Constitution was written for. But yet we've
gotten so far away from it and s so far
(36:39):
out uh away from it. I don't know if we
can come back. We can if if as Americans we
say our k our children are not junk. God doesn't
make junk. They deserve better. What can we show them?
What can we give them that's better?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and editing by
g Hengler and a special thanks to Roy Rogers Junior
aka Dusty sharing the story of his mother, father, and
sibling and my goodness what he said about his father,
Dad felt bad for me because I didn't have sisters
or brothers. And of course, the response by Roy and
(37:18):
Dale to that grief, the loss of his downce In
Jerome's sister, was adoption. The response to grief was love.
The response to loss was addition. The response to loss
was adoption. And not one, not two, but many more
would join the Roy Rogers family. And of course then
(37:40):
came those two losses, and more questioning of God, how
much more are you going to lay on us? Dale
and Roy said, and how many of us have been there?
And then of course the final lament by Roy Rogers Junior,
which was the family as all we have. Family will
save the country. Family and love is what saves every
thing that makes life worth living. The story of Roy
(38:03):
Rodgers and Dale Evans their family, as told by Dusty
Rogers here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the All American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Up next to the story of a
name you all know, Roy Rogers, told by Roy Dusty
(00:33):
Rogers Junior. Dusty has been acting and performing almost since birth.
The only natural born son of Roy, he was raised
by Roy and his wife Dale Evans, along with their
eight children. Roy and Delle were known to millions of
Americans through TV, radio and dozens of beloved Western movies.
As a small child, Dusty appeared in his parents TV show,
(00:56):
The Roy Rogers Show, Here's Dusty to share the behind
the scene story of what it was like growing up
in the home of the King of the Cowboys and
the Queen of the West.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
People say, well, when did you know your dad was famous?
And I said, well, I really didn't know he was
famous at all till I was probably five. I mean
I went to the movie set with him when I
was two. I spent every birthday I think I can
think of, from two to five on the movie set
with Dad. Then all of a sudden, the reality came
in that this man does something other than just movies.
(01:30):
He's very popular with the populace, with the people, and
of course when we would go out on the road
with him, all of a sudden and we're surrounded by
thousands of people and especially young kids who loved him,
and it was a little bit difficult to swallow sometimes.
You know, you want you want your mom and dad yourself.
You don't want to share him with anybody, you know,
when you're young like that. I mean, there, wait a minute,
that's my mom and dad. What are you doing? You know,
(01:52):
So it was it was difficult in that way, and
I think all of us grew up under that, under
that veil of constant being photographed, constantly, being on the road,
constantly being Royan Dale's son or daughter. You know, it
didn't matter if he were adopted or not. You were
Royandale's son or Royandale's daughter. Dale is my mother, I mean,
(02:14):
my biological mother passed away when I was just a
few days old. I never got to know my atro mother.
I was born by cesarean section and she got an
embolism in her system, which at the time in the forties.
This was nineteen forty six, and they didn't have any
way of detecting blood clots in this blood clott had
formed during the cesarean operation, and it just kind of
(02:36):
set dormant there in her system because there was no
way of detecting them, and they didn't get the ladies
up and walk around like they do to today after
childbirth to help us all these clots away. So this
one just set dormant in mom's system for about four
days five days, and when she became more active, so
did the clott It began to move through her system
and unbeknownst to anybody, and actually I was on the
(02:58):
bed ready to come home, and Dad was on his
way to get us, and Mom just this embolism hit
her heart and she just her eyes bat rolled back
at her head and she just fell back on the
bed and was gone that quick, no indication at all
that there was a problem. So, you know, of course,
for my dad it was devastating. He has three kids,
(03:19):
and King of the Cowboys in nineteen forty six was
the height of the man's career, and then all of
a sudden, overnight he finds himself a widower with three
young uns and absolutely nobody in his life at that
point to take care of us kids. So he had
to really jump on at a bad time of his
life and try to get somebody in to take care
of us, and he hired nannies to watch out over us.
(03:40):
So I never got to know my real mom. And
then when I was about a year and a half old,
he married Dale and she just kind of stepped in
and really took over with us kids, and we just
loved her death, I mean all of us did. I
think Cheryl had a little bit of a problem with
her early on, because Cheryl was kind of she was
the first one in the family. Dad at her first,
(04:00):
and because they didn't think that my mom and Roy
could have children, so they adopted Cheryl, and she was
kind of the queen bee. She was the one that
the oldest one, and she wanted to be the mom,
I mean she did. She wanted to take care of
me and Linda Lou and she just thought she'd step
into that role after Mom and Pat what she called
her mommy, passed away, and of course it didn't happen.
(04:23):
Dad needed some adults to do it. So but when
she married, when Dad married Dale, because it was kind
of funny because Cheryl would always get between Dale and
Roy at events and stuff to try to keep them separated.
But you know, it was just the good Lord. It
was meant to be, and it didn't work out. But
Dale was my mother. I mean she came in and
(04:43):
when I was a year and a half old, and
all of us kids just loved her to death. And
I never knew any other mother, So she was you know,
mother means a lot of things to different people. There's
your birth mother, and then of course you don't know
much about your mother un till you get older. Well
that's where I would and Dale was my mom by
that time. So I couldn't ask for a better one,
couldn't ask for a better one. Dad was an old
(05:06):
country boy and things didn't really matter to him, and
he he just loved to hunt and fish and do
what he want to do. Dale and the Westerns. He
Dad fit into the Westerns just like a pair of
you know, like a pair of good boots. Mom didn't.
She could care less about the Western. She was an angeneue.
She wanted to be. She wanted to be the big
(05:27):
band singer. She came out to California to work in
Buzzy Berkeley's musicals. And that's what she wanted to do,
big band singer, you know. And they sent her out
to audition with Dad and on they were looking for
a Fox was actually Republic was looking for a new
leading lady for Dad, someone who could sing, do everything.
(05:48):
And so they called over to Fox and they said,
do you do you have anybody that might we need
a young leading lady for Roy Rogers And they said, well,
sure we do. Her name's Dale Evans. And they said, well,
the thing is, she has to be beautiful, she has
to sing like a bird, and she has to be
able to set a horse. She needs to learn her
(06:08):
she needs to be able to ride. Oh yeah, Dale,
to fit she some texts should fit the boy. Mom
had not been on a horse since she was three
four years old on her mom farm ram and dad farm.
So but they and again the good Lord stepped in.
They s and her mom went out the location, you know,
a dressed to the nines, thinking she was gonna try
out for this music thing. And she showed up in
(06:31):
a long dress and thinking she was gonna play. And
the next thing that no, the director said, Dale, we
want you to get up on this horse. We want
you to ride at the end of the street and
sit there with Roy and Gabby and big Boy Williams.
And when I throw my hat down, I want you
all to ride to the camera. And when you get close,
just pull up on your horse and we'll see how
you look on a horseback. So she did she got
on a horse. I mean mom was Mom was a trooper.
(06:53):
I mean, like that said, you can tell a textan,
but not much. You cannot tell Dale. She can't do
something because she'll just prove you wrong every time.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
And you're listening to Dusty Rogers tell the story of
his mother and father, Roy and Dale Evans, and my goodness,
this happens so often in American life, where women would
die of complications from childbirth and so many children die.
When we return more of the story of Roy Rogers,
as told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior. Here on our
(07:24):
American Stories. Here are our American stories. We bring you
inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories
from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are
free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
(07:45):
If you love our stories in America like we do,
please go to our American Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot, help
us keep the great American stories coming. That's our American
Stories dot Com. And we continue with our American stories
(08:12):
and with Dusty Rogers telling the story of his mother
and father. Roy and Dale Evans want to be Big
band singer. Dale first met Roy Rodgers in nineteen forty
four on the set of a western movie where she
was screen tested riding a horse. Let's pick up here
with Roy Rodgers Junior again also known as Dusty.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
She got on a horse and they took off running
and it came to the camera and the guy dropped
his hat and they pulled up and when they did,
the horse just jammed Mom into the saddle just I mean,
he just pounded her because she didn't know how to
set it right, and it broke, knocked the caps off
of her teeth and big Boy Williams horse set on
(08:58):
her teeth. After the end they were all get and
had she had ev and redone. But the producer said, well, Dale,
that wasn't too bad. Well Roy, what do you think that? Said?
He said, I think it was Billy Whitney at the time,
and he said, Billy, I swear I have never seen
so much sky between a woman's rand and a saddle
(09:21):
in my mind. But she learned to ride and and
that's and I think she did something totally against what
she really wanted to do, because at that time, you
did what you needed to do to make money to survive.
And but she fit in so well and did it
did it so on Dad, he just had to be himself.
(09:41):
But Mom was totally opposite. But she learned to adapt
and and go along with what the thing was, which
was western and cowboy songs, and that's way away from
big band and big orchestra music. But Mom was a
trooper and just always whatever the situation was, she stepped
in and said I'm gonna do it, and and did
(10:04):
well she you know, I mean, after the birth of Tom,
I'm sure. And then of course her husband left her
when she was just just young, and of course then
she was, like I said, starving and trying to make
a career. So she I think she she always longed
for child and so when she married Roy and and
and they had a a a chance to to have
a child of their own, you know, they jumped right
(10:25):
on it. And and then of course when Robin was
born and and found out that that she had Down's syndrome. Again,
it was a shock originally, you know, I mean, you're
never ready for that. But then I I it's settled
in that this is a lovely, y human being that's
from both of us. You know, there must be a
(10:46):
reason why they didn't know. Nobody knew at that time
what caused downs, and they recommended that, uh, they put
her an institution. And the doctor said, you need to
put her institution, and Dad said, you kidding me, We're
not putting her institution. She says, this is our child.
We're gonna take her home and love her. And so
against the doctor's orders, they did. They took her home
(11:08):
and made us. Dad built a special area for her
and protect her from us kids, you know, cause she
was very fragile. And but even during the time that
Robin was there and very ill, they did, both of
them just loved that little girl to death. I mean,
it was just it was part of them, and and
and sh and they wanted her they of course, we
all wanted her to survive. With the doctor said that
(11:30):
probably she wouldn't, but you don't know that, you know,
have had we had the medications they have today for
Down syndrome children. Robin probably could have lived in her
forties or fifties, We don't know. But it was a
gift from God. And and Dad always says, if you
can never give a gift up, you never throw it away.
(11:51):
A gift is a gift no matter who gives it to,
you keep it. And uh and and she was not
only gift to to royan Dale, but a gift to
all of us kids who got a chance to know her.
I was four and five, you know at the time,
and I couldn't physically, you know, roll wrestle with her
like I really wanted to. But she and I communicated.
(12:12):
Uh she couldn't speak, of course, but we communicated it
with She had certain giggles and last she'd do and
and uh she would we would play hide and seek.
I'd get under the crib, you know, and I'd reach
up and touch your arm, and she'd giggle and roll
try to see where I was and and h that's
the kind of play we had. But uh, she was
just a sweetheart. I still see her eyes and her
looking through the wars of that crib today. I mean,
(12:33):
she just was. And that's why those kids are so
special to me today. My son Dustin and I we
work with a group out of Texas called DRI which
is Development Resources, Inc. And they they have group homes
for kids that are that have downs and we work
with help raising money because a lot of them now,
a lot of those w I tell people that theyre
(12:53):
y you ha y I people bring bring 'em to
the show the down Center of kids, and and I'll say,
you know how lucky you are that you have one
of these special children. I said, ID don't give 'em
to everybody. You know, he picks and choose who he
wants to have 'em, and they're his angels. And doesn't
matter what color they are. They all have the same look,
(13:13):
and they all love music and they love people. They
have their ups and downs like everybody does. You know,
their their their moments of of angry and and in
the little little fits and stuff. But they love you unconditionally.
And the only other person I know does that is
either a dog or God that loves you unconditionally. I mean,
no matter what happened. And uh, And that's what's special
(13:35):
about 'em? And so they've always been special to me
and always will be. I mean, they're just they're just wonderful,
wonderful gifts from God. And of course Mom and Dad
knew that from from the beginning that it was a
gift and they and that's why Mom wanted to write
about her. She she was puzzled for the longest time
on how, M how I need to tell Robin's story
about I don't know how where do I? Where do
(13:57):
I go? And so she sat on a park bench
in New York and said, God, I don't you know,
give me some direction on on how to write this book,
This angel Unaware a book I want to write. And
she said it was just an amazing thing that uh,
the Good Lord put on her heart. Well, don't don't
you tell the story? Let Robin tell the story? Angel.
(14:18):
Let a where The book that Mom finished, uh after
Robin passed away, had a huge impact on a lot
of different people. And I think the biggest impact it
really had were on the families that were fortunate enough
to have Down syndrome children, because it was always looked
on as a stigma, and I think people looked at
(14:41):
down syndrome children as something that they did wrong. It
was their fault, not realizing that God made it possible
for them to have one and that it was gonna
change their life in the future. And and and uh,
like I say, it only gives them to a few.
But I think having Robin's story told by Robin herself
(15:04):
that she was okay, that yes, that she had passed
on and she'd moved, but the God sent her for
a short time to be a blessing to Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans. That was her job. God sent her
there to do that. And I think the reality for
a lot of folks who have down syndrome children, they
(15:26):
never thought of it that way because the public wouldn't
let them. The public looked down syndrome children as less
than perfect. They're not, you know, And instead of coming
up and saying what a beautiful child, they would come
up and say, oh, I'm so sorry. Why they didn't know?
They didn't know, they don't. And so the book allowed
(15:51):
families to bring out those children with them in public,
and when the public could actually see the beautiful smiles
and the love of music and the excitement in their eyes.
And even though a lot of them couldn't talk. There
was something there that that had you had not seen before,
and Mom and Dad and us too. I mean when
(16:14):
I was young, when I was only five, I didn't
see any down some syndrome children at out at all
up until after the book, probably a year or so
after the book was released. You started Mom started looking
and seeing them in the audience at where they were
because they felt that, well, if Royan Dale can be
(16:36):
blessed with one of these children and take them home
and love them, why shouldn't we And why shouldn't I.
This child is special and they're a blessing, So why
shouldn't I take something that I'm proud of out and
let them experience the world which is cruel sometimes, But
(16:56):
they're no different than anybody else. They they need to
have a chance at life like you and I have.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
And you've been listening to Roy Rogers Junior, who goes
by the name Dusty, telling the story of his mother
and father and also his sister Robin. And my goodness,
what a story he told about just his mother's just
can't do spirit, and actors and actresses of the time
they just always took the work, and my goodness, the
storytelling on Robin or down syndrome, child of Roy and Dale.
(17:28):
I wanted to tell Robin's story. Dale prayed to God
in a New York park bench, but I don't know how,
and it later we learned that God had sent her
to the earth for a short time to be a
blessing to Roy and Dale. When we come back, more
of the story of Roy and Dale Rogers as told
by their son, Dusty Rogers here on our American Stories.
(18:08):
And we continue with our American stories and with Dusty
Rogers telling the story of his parents, Roy Rogers and
Dale Evans. Let's pick up where Dusty last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I remember when Robin. I mean many times I could
see Mom and Dad holding each other and crying because
she had good days and had really bad days. And
I think for them it was a challenge to do
there every day, be in front of a camera, be smiling,
(18:41):
being doing this when they know part of them is
at home slowly dying. I think in their back of
their mind they were hoping that she would come through
it all. But she was so frail and had and
us kids sometimes we couldn't play with her because we
had a cold or whatever. You know, so it was
it was a challenge that way. And they had a nurse,
(19:03):
uh that took care of her all the time. There
was somebody with her all the time. So I think
there was some questioning of of God, you know, w
what what purposes? You know what we know that you've
given this child to us? What? But f but why? What?
What is it that you want us to do? What
is it that? And and that's what Mom cu she said.
(19:24):
For the longest time, I couldn't put the book together
because I didn't know, I didn't know what my what
the purpose was. And after she had passed on, and
I remember Mom and dad the day she died, and
Mom and Dad I think they spent at least eleven
ten to eleven hours out in the carport just holding
each other and crying. And I s we'd look out
(19:45):
the window and they'd just be sobbing holding each other.
And I got to thinking, you know, wow, I mean, uh, ok,
you know again, five years old, you know, couldn't understand
why we couldn't see Robin. You know, we didn't know
what happened. They didn't know quite how to tell us,
I guess, And it was a rough It was a
rough go and that uh, and how mom and dad
(20:05):
did what they did and and still s still say,
Royan Dale, and still do the obligations that they had
in life. Uh, and still raise us kids and take
care of us and let us know that you know,
Robin was special, and you know this isn't gonna happen
to all of you. You're not gonna all pass away now, now,
(20:26):
don't you know she had brought you know? And to
try to explain that to your kids and and make
it sound not so bad, but yet it was devastating
to them. Uh, it's a phenomenal thing. And I think
they questioned the grace of God, but yet it was
the grace of God who got him through it. Somebody
(20:46):
asked me one time, They said, roy when's the first
time you really realized that the kids of America really
looked up to you? And he said, in nineteen forty one,
playing Madison Square Garden. He said, I was walking back
by the cattle choots, and around the corner come this
little guy about four years old, dressed exactly like me.
He said, That's when I knew that I had to
(21:09):
keep my life in line and that I owed these
kids something because they're looking up to me. I can't
say one thing and do another. And so he made
a pack then with himself. Then good Lord, I'm sure
that he would do everything he could to keep his
image so that kids could look up to him and
mean something. And of course then that's and he was
(21:30):
hitting hospitals even then and then and then when the
polio thing was so bad in the forties and fifties,
he would go to the hospital. He was fighting all
the time in his mind, because I know he believed
in God, but he was he was angry at God somewhat,
I think, because he couldn't understand why, if we have
(21:50):
such a trusting and just and merciful God, why he
would allow children of all things, his youngest creations, to
come into this life and be attacked by some terrible
disease or born with deformities or born I'm sure he
saw downs kids and at that time too, and so
it was hard for him for a long time. He
(22:10):
couldn't understand why, it couldn't he couldn't reconcile, reconcile why,
And so he was almost driven to the fact that
he wanted to go and see those kids and entertain him,
and many many stories I could tell you. The one
that hits the most is is you know, and a
lot of the kids who had polio and the forties
(22:31):
were put into iron lungs. They their lungs were undeveloped
and they needed help, and so these machines iron lungs
would help him breathe a little bit. Of course. They
were in this big iron tube with their heads sticking
out and laying flat, of course, and looking up through
a mirror that goes that direction, so they could at
least see. And Dad would would go there and he
(22:53):
would he would go up to the ward and he'd
bring the pioneers with him and they'd sing a couple songs,
and then he would Dad would actually go to each
iron lung and get around beside the child instead of
looking at him through a mirror, so he could get
eye contact with him, and he'd lean down and talk
to him, every one of 'em a little bit. And uh,
(23:13):
and he'd say, you know, billy, I know you're having trouble,
you know, but you know, all good cowboys are tested.
You know, you got you gotta buck up a little bit,
you gotta, you know, the cowboy way has not to
lay here and worry Fred about it. It's to fight
and get out of here. And he said, I'm gonna
help you. And he would he would bring these gun
belts with him, kids, gun belts with him in boxes
and he would d he would hang the gun belt
(23:34):
up on the mirror. And of course people thought, well,
that's cruel. This poor little kid. He's can't you got
his y, His head is all he's got out and
Roy's giving him a gun belt. What is that? But
then Dad would say, when you get out of this
iron lung, if you fight hard enough and and and
you pray hard enough, you'll get out. You'll eventually get out.
And what I want you to do is I want
you to wear this gun belt and I want you to,
(23:56):
you know, play cowboy like all the rest of the
boys and girls doing a cunt. And then someday I
want you to come to Hollywood and see me and desin.
I'll tell you we've had a lot of over the
last you know, I've had a band for forty years
and I have seen so many people that have come
that were in iron lungs. In the forties, the dad
(24:17):
come to the hospital, put up that gun belt and
they got out, and of course some didn't, but most
of them got out, and they still have a gun belt.
So in his in his somewhat little childish way, and
I think that's why kids loved him so much. He
was as big a kid at heart that they were.
(24:37):
If he thought, if he gave him just a little
of encouragement on the level, that they would understand. And
if Away tells you to do it, especially in the forties,
you did it and it worked really well. Yeah, many
of the kids come to the show even today. In
the last this last couple of years, I've had I've
had three in the last couple of years. I try
to keep track. They still have the gun belt and
(25:02):
it is their most prized position. They say, if it
wasn't for this gun belt, and it's most of the
time it's in shatters. I mean it's just tatters of
the leathers weren't off. All the spots have come off
and stuff, and say, I wore it everywhere. I know,
wre to bed. My mom used to get so mad
at me because I didn't want to wear it in
the bathtub and they'd stop me from doing it. But
it was their most prized position and still is today.
(25:28):
Mom knew that they didn't want to have another child.
They didn't want because at that time they didn't know
what caused downs. They thought it might be an rh
blood factor problem one negative and one positive and their
blood type, but they weren't sure. So when they lost
Robin just before the second birthday, it had to be different.
(25:49):
I mean, I know it was very difficult because I
saw it. But they got back up on their feet
and they the Good Lord granted him grace and they
were able to get back up and go. But there
still was a void. And they just decided, well, if
we can't have any more of our own children because
we don't know if we'll have another down syndrome child
or not, then we'll adopt.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
And you're listening to the son of Roy and Dale Evans,
Dusty Rogers. That's Roy Rogers Junior telling the story of
his parents, particularly after the loss of his sister Robin
at the age of two. He was five at the time,
and he remembers looking outside his home and seeing his
parents often just hugging and crying, And what a thing
(26:31):
to watch as a five year old watching your own
parents cope with grief and then having to come right
back in the house and raise those kids and hit
the line as professionals, as actors, as superstars and just
sort of put that grief behind and move on. And
the stories of him visiting these kids with iron lung
machines and parking by their sides, making eye contact and saying,
(26:54):
all good cowboys are tested, finding words of encouragement for
these kids, this big international suit star, having this art
for kids and questioning God. As Dusty said, my parents
questioned the grace of God, but the grace of God
also got them through the ordeal. And when we come
back more of Roy Rogers' story and his bride Dale
(27:18):
as told by their son Dusty Rogers. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories in
(27:39):
the story of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as told
by their son, Roy Rogers Junior aka Dusty. Let's pick
up where he last left off.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Dad felt bad for me because I had any sisters
and I had no brother. Unbeknownst to me, they went
on a trip to Ohio and then went down from
Ohio down to Kentucky, uh down to Louisville, and they
had heard of a a orphanage. Dad would always invite
orphanages to bring their kids over for the show. And
they had had a chance to visit one of them,
(28:13):
and and uh in Covington, Kentucky, and they ran across
this little boy, and Dad was going around shaking hands
to all the little boys, and Sandy just stuck out
his hand and said, howld her partner, and Dad just
kind of fell in love with him. You know, he
was just a little he was stunned in his growth,
and he had all kinds of problems. He slept in
a chair since he was born. Practically he didn't know
what a bed was, and and they treated him pretty badly.
(28:35):
So they, you know, they said, this is the guy
we gotta get for for for Dusty. And then they
stopped by Hope Cottage on the way back home and
they adopted a little American Indian girl chalked out Indian,
very little dog, called her Dody. So I'm coming to
the airport, uh, thinking I'm gonna meet mom and dad,
(28:57):
And down off the airplane comes to Dad. He's carrying
this little kid, and Mom's carrying a little girl, little
baby girl. I got to thinking, Hey, what's going on?
You know, and uh, and I've got pictures of our
first meetings. Sanday I first meeting, and I did not
(29:18):
like him. I thought, oh, wait a minute, just a minute,
now I was the prince here. Now all of a sudden,
I got somebody horning it on my spot and mom,
Mom explained, now, this is your new brother. You know.
His name is John David Harry Hardy, but we're gonna
call him Sandy. And this is Dodie. We're little Mary
Little she's gonna be your sister. Well, Dody I fell
in love with right away. But I had our time
(29:38):
with Sandy for a while. But uh, we grew to
be really good budds. And I protected him a lot
because he was smaller than me, and he was you know,
guys were picking on him all the time, and he
had a lot of physical problems. And uh, but there
was a there was and then of course they that
wasn't enough, you know. They a little later on they adopted, well,
(30:00):
got a little Marion from they had gone in nineteen
fifty four, they went to uh to England and Scotland
and Ireland and fell in love a little girl named Marion,
or her name of Marian Fleming and wanted to adopt
her and couldn't because she uh uh international adoptions weren't allowed,
so they became her foster parent. And uh then they
(30:21):
adopt a little girl. Uh they wanted to adopt a
little girl. There was a uh one of the the
ban on international adoptions was listed and lifted in the sixties.
They adopted a little girl from Seoul, Korea. Her name
was in Ili, called her debut Lee and uh so
it just kept going on and on until they ended
up with a nine children total. And uh and uh, boy,
(30:42):
it was a bunch, I'll tell you, it was a bunch.
And you know, six six months old, six and a
half months old in nineteen you know, Tom was nineteen
twenty years old at that time. Aunt tellya we were.
It was wild and crazy, it really was. But uh,
Dad pulled us all together, said, hey, you're all the
same God's eyes, you're the same in your mother's in
my eyes, and you all be our kids, and you're
(31:04):
gonna all be treated equal. It doesn't matter if you're male, female,
or black, brown, or blue. You know, you're in the
Rogers family now and you didn't ask to be, but
here you are. And so deal with it, and we did.
We moved to Apple Valley in about nineteen sixty five,
I think this was a year we moved up there.
(31:26):
And the reason we moved was a little Debbie, the
Korean orphan the year before sixty four, was on her
way back from Mexico. The church had done a good
willed mission down there were kind of kind of out
of sister church and the bus blew a left front
tire and it came across the highway on down their
(31:48):
ocean side and was hit head on by a station wagon.
Of course, Debbie and her friend were sitting right in
the front seat on the right side, and that's exactly
where it hit, and of course Debbie was killed again.
My dad was in the hospital at the time. He
had uh his neck fused and and the the third vertebrae,
fourth vertebrae fused together. He had staff infection. It was
(32:12):
in bad shape in the hospital and Debbie was killed
while he was there. And Mom, I mean, poor Mom
was just I mean, she was a basket case. And
they tried to keep all the news away from Dad.
Art went to the hospital and tried to keep him
from seeing anything or reading anything until everybody could be told.
And so long story short, the Chatsworth place for my dad.
(32:35):
I loved it there, but for my dad became a
sad place. It was where Debbie was, and and you know,
he passed her bedroom every day, and Debbie was kind
of his favorite. Debbie was very outgoing and h and
would comba set and Comba's hair, you know, for hours,
and just you know, put curlers in it and stuff.
And she just she was kind of his favorite. And
(32:58):
she just and and he just she just play it
to the hilt with him, and UH had a very
close bond. So it was very difficult, you know, to
come home at night and see her room and see
her things. And so Dad just decided, we've we've got
to move. We gotta get out of here. I, this
isn't the same place that I remember. And so we
moved to Apple Valley in nineteen sixty five. I was
(33:21):
already there. I had moved up early. I was there
two or three weeks, well actually a little longer that
before Mom came up. They came up around Christmas time
and I started there in September, I think in school
senior year in high school. Mom and Dad moved, which
was not a whole lot of fun for me, but
I again learned to da adapt okay. But then Mom
and Dad came up and uh and uh they got
(33:43):
little house on the highway. There was beautiful that Apple
Valley was very quiet and about eight thousand people and
and everybody knew Royandale that kind of left him alone,
which was nice. And uh, everything was going really great.
And then on October thirty first, my mom's birthday in
nineteen sixty five, got a call from the d DV
(34:03):
Defense Department that my brother Sandy had choked to death
while serving with the army in Germany. Well here we
go again, you know, and Dad especially took it really bad.
We got I think both of 'em. Well Mom did too,
but uh, Dad was especially upset over it. And uh
(34:24):
again questioning, you know how much how much more God
do you have to lay on us before you know it? Well,
God doesn't give you choices, He doesn't tell you why
thy you know y and you may not know the
reason for years. But out of those deaths came from
beautiful books that Mom had written. The cowboys had us code. Uh,
(34:48):
every cowboy had their own ten codes. Dads was different
than hoppies. Hoppies was different than gene dads. Was based
on the Bible, and it was based on the Ten Commandments,
but it was in child in ch words, but that
they could understand it. You need to go to Sunday
school every Sunday, and you need to weigh your parents,
and you you need all your food, no waste any
and there were you know, I'm just basic, just basic
(35:11):
things that kids could. They wanted to aspire to because
they love the men that told them that they needed to.
And it was the same when I was a care
everybody who wanted to be a cowboy, even the little
girls want to be a cowboy I want. They would
buy Roy Rogers stuff. They wouldn't buy the Dale Evans outfits.
They wanted Roy. We don't have that today. There's nobody
out there today to tell our children that that's wrong.
(35:36):
What you're doing is wrong. You need to put that
up and you need to This is where you need
to go and make them believe it. There there's no
reality anymore. So I just wish that the producers and
directors and and and people in the media today would
(35:56):
take an account that they're still young. They may be
and they may have a spendable income when they're thirteen.
Maybe I don't know, but the target audience for most
all of almost everything today is seventeen to twenty seven, thirty,
maybe forty if you're lucky. Most of it's younger than
that because we've gotten away. We've gotten away from what's important,
(36:19):
and that's the family unit. My mom used to say
to us. See, when the family unit fails in this country,
we are in big trouble, and you can see it
every day. That isn't the way this country was founded.
It wasn't the thing that our forefathers fought for. It
isn't what the Constitution was written for. But yet we've
gotten so far away from it and s so far
(36:39):
out uh away from it. I don't know if we
can come back. We can if if as Americans we
say our k our children are not junk. God doesn't
make junk. They deserve better. What can we show them?
What can we give them that's better?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and editing by
g Hengler and a special thanks to Roy Rogers Junior
aka Dusty sharing the story of his mother, father, and
sibling and my goodness what he said about his father,
Dad felt bad for me because I didn't have sisters
or brothers. And of course, the response by Roy and
(37:18):
Dale to that grief, the loss of his downce In
Jerome's sister, was adoption. The response to grief was love.
The response to loss was addition. The response to loss
was adoption. And not one, not two, but many more
would join the Roy Rogers family. And of course then
(37:40):
came those two losses, and more questioning of God, how
much more are you going to lay on us? Dale
and Roy said, and how many of us have been there?
And then of course the final lament by Roy Rogers Junior,
which was the family as all we have. Family will
save the country. Family and love is what saves every
thing that makes life worth living. The story of Roy
(38:03):
Rodgers and Dale Evans their family, as told by Dusty
Rogers here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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