page_title: Roy Rogers
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Roy Rogers / Life and career / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: English: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at Knott's Berry Farm in the 1970s.
context_page_description: Roy Rogers was an American singer, actor, and television host. He was one of the most popular Western stars of his era. Known as the "King of the Cowboys", he appeared in over 100 films and numerous radio and television episodes of The Roy Rogers Show. In many of his films and television episodes, he appeared with his wife, Dale Evans, his Golden Palomino Trigger; and his German Shepherd, Bullet. His show was broadcast on radio for nine years and then on television from 1951 through 1957. His early roles were uncredited parts in films by fellow cowboy singing star Gene Autry and his productions usually featured a sidekick, often Pat Brady, Andy Devine, George "Gabby" Hayes, or Smiley Burnette. In his later years, he lent his name to the franchise chain of Roy Rogers Restaurants.
context_section_description: In 1932, a palomino colt foaled in California was named "Golden Cloud"; when Rogers acquired him, he renamed him Trigger. In 1932, Rogers met an admirer named Lucile Ascolese. They were married in 1933 by a justice of the peace in Los Angeles; the marriage failed, and the couple divorced in 1936. Rogers then went on tour with the O-Bar-O Cowboys and in June 1933 met Grace Arline Wilkins at a Roswell, New Mexico radio station. They were married in Roswell on June 11, 1936, having corresponded since their first meeting. In 1941, the couple adopted a daughter, Cheryl Darlene. Two years later, Grace gave birth to daughter Linda Lou. A son, Roy, Jr. ("Dusty"), was born in 1946; Grace died of complications from the birth a few days later, on November 3.
  Rogers met Dale Evans in 1944 when they were cast in a film together. They fell in love soon after Grace's death, and Rogers proposed to her during a rodeo at Chicago Stadium. They married on New Year's Eve in 1947 at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma, where they had filmed Home in Oklahoma a few months earlier. Together they had five children: Robin Elizabeth, who had Down syndrome and died of complications with mumps shortly before her second birthday, three adopted daughters, Mimi, Dodie, and Debbie, and one adopted son, Sandy. Evans wrote about the loss of their daughter Robin in her book Angel Unaware. Rogers and Evans remained married until his death.
  In 1955, Rogers and Evans purchased a 168-acre (68 ha) ranch near Chatsworth, California, complete with a hilltop ranch house, expanding it to 300 acres (121 ha). After their adopted daughter Debbie was killed in a church bus accident in 1964, they moved to the 67-acre (27 ha) Double R Bar Ranch in Apple Valley, California, living in the nearby town.
  Rogers was a Freemason and a member of Hollywood (California) Lodge No. 355, the Scottish Rite Valley of Los Angeles, and Al Malaikah Shrine Temple. He was also a pilot and the owner of a Cessna Bobcat.
  Rogers supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election.
caption: Rogers and Dale Evans at Knott's Berry Farm in the 1970s
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