Perhaps best known as the beautiful cowgirl wife of famed film/TV
frontiersman Roy Rogers, Dale Evans was a fascinating renaissance woman with
enough natural grace, charm and intellect to earn her an independent glow in the
spotlight. There’s plenty about her we bet you didn’t know. For
instance:

1. Dale Evans sifted through four names before settling on the fifth and
final Dale. She was born Lucille Wood Smith in 1912. Her parents changed her
name to Frances Octavia Smith in infancy. At 14, she married and became Frances
Fox. Early in her singing career she tried out Marion Lee. And finally, during a
stint on Ketucky’s WHAS radio, station manager Joe Eaton christened her Dale
Evans–the name that would bring her fame and glory.

2. Dale’s names weren’t the only revolving door aspects of her life. She
also changed husbands four times. The aforementioned childhood marriage at 14
joined her to an older classmate, Thomas F. Fox, for who she bore a son–Thomas
F. Fox, Jr. In 1929, the year the first marriage dissolved, she remarried Wayne
Johns. By 1935, she divorced and remarried again. This time, she united with
composer/arranger Robert Dale Butts. It would be 11 years before she would marry
the man she’d remain with until death did them part: Roy Rogers.

3. Among Dale’s many trades and occupations, she was a secretary, a radio
announcer/singer (of jazz, big band and country music), an author of 20
inspirational books, a stunning and talented actress, a TV show host and an
aquestrian.

4. During her stint with 20th Century Fox, Evan’s manager scaled back her
age by seven years and reported to the press that her son, Tommy (from her first
marriage) was actually a brother to whom she was tirelessly devoted.

5. Evans’ first book, Angel Unaware, was inspired by Evans’ and
Rogers’ only child together, Robin, a Downs Syndrome patient. Robin died before
age 2. The book garnered praise for fostering understanding of the unique
challenges facing parents and children with handicaps and mental challenges.

6. Dale passed away in 2001 at age 88. She is survived by eight children,
two of which she and Rogers adopted and a host of grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. Both she and Rogers were interred at their ranch.