DALE EVANS BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Dale Evans was born on October 31st, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas with the birth name Frances Octavia Smith. Her family raised her in Texas and Arkansas. By the age of fourteen she chose to marry and was pregnant and a mother by fifteen years old. She divorced at seventeen and moved to Memphis, Tennessee in search of a career as a singer.
She found work at an insurance agency and would also get small gigs singing on the radio. She re married there briefly but that marriage ended badly and so again she picked up and relocated to Kentucky where she became a pretty well known singer on a popular radio show. It was then that she took on her stage name, Dale Evans. She soon relocated again, this time to Dallas Texas and found work again as a radio singer. After she remarried again, she moved with her husband to Chicago where she began to get attention not only in radio but also from film industry executives.
Soon Fox Pictures signed her to contract and cast her in a number of films in small roles. She was then cast in a film opposite Roy Rogers as his leading lady and the two became a steady on screen couple. They remained close on screen as well as of screen and when both their current marriages came to an end, the two decided to wed.
She is most well known for her role from 1951-1957 on screen with Rogers in the highly successful television series, "The Roy Rogers Show" as well as starring in over thirty films, mostly westerns, and recording some two hundred songs.
Dale's career was remaining successful, but her marriage to Rogers was set off by tragedy when they lost 3 of their children before they reached adulthood. Evans authored a number of books to help her cope with the tragedy she suffered, such as the book, "Angel Unaware". They were able to hold their marriage together, and even ran a museum called the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California which later moved to Branson, Missouri. Later in life, Evans also hosted her own religious television program.
Her life consisted of four marriages and a total of 9 children whom 3 had their lives cut short. Her marriage to Roy Rogers lasted from 1947 through his death in 1998. Dale Evans earned the nicknames 'Queen of the West' and 'Queen of the Cowgirls' throughout her career. She passed away on February 7th, 2001 in Apple Valley, California from congestive heart failure.
She received a number of honors and awards for her professional career such as, in 1996 being presented the Women in Film/Dallas's Legacy Award as well as she and her husband being inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performances of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1976. She was also honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio and Television.
Filmography
1996 A Date with Dale
1975 The Mickie Finns Finally Present How the West Was Lost
1968 The Red Skelton Hour
1959 Playhouse 90
1952 The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show
1951-1957 The Roy Rogers Show
1954 Tournament of Roses
1951 Pals of the Golden West
1951 South of Caliente
1950 Trigger, Jr.
1950 Twilight in the Sierras
1950 Bells of Coronado
1949 The Golden Stallion
1949 Down Dakota Way
1949 Susanna Pass
1948 Slippy McGee
1947 The Trespasser
1947 Bells of San Angelo
1947 Apache Rose
1946 Heldorado
1946 Home in Oklahoma
1946 Roll on Texas Moon
1946 Under Nevada Skies
1946 My Pal Trigger
1946 Rainbow Over Texas
1946 Song of Arizona
1945 Don't Fence Me In
1945 Sunset in El Dorado
1945 Along the Navajo Trail
1945 Hitchhike to Happiness
1945 Man from Oklahoma
1945 Bells of Rosarita
1945 Utah
1945 The Big Show-Off
1944 Lights of Old Santa Fe
1944 San Fernando Valley
1944 Song of Nevada
1944 The Yellow Rose of Texas
1944 Cowboy and the Senorita
1944 Casanova in Burlesque
1943 In Old Oklahoma
1943 Here Comes Elmer
1943 Hoosier Holiday
1943 West Side Kid
1943 Swing Your Partner
1942 Girl Trouble
1942 Orchestra Wives
