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Dale Evans

Lucille Wood Smith name changed in infancy to Frances Octavia Smith famous as Dale Evans (31 October 1912 - 7 February 2001) was a prolific writer, movie star, singer/songwriter and the wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

Evans had a tumultuous early life, eloping with her first husband Thomas F. Fox at 14. She bore one son, Thomas Fox Jr. at 15. Divorced in 1929 at 17, she married August Wayne Johns that same year until her divorce from him in 1933. She took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930's to promote her singing career. She married her accompianist and arranger Robert Dale Butts in 1935.

After beginning her carreer singing at the radio station where she was employed as a secretary, Evans had a productive carreer as a jazz, swing and big band singer which lead to a screen test and contract with 20th Century Fox studios. During her time at 20th Century Fox, the studio promoted her as the unmarried supporter of her teenage brother Tommy, actually her son Tom Fox Jr. This deception continued through her divorce from Butts in 1945, and her development as a cow-girl co-star to Roy Rogers at Republic studios.

Evans married Roy Rogers on New Years Eve 1946. Rogers ended the deception regarding Tommy. Rogers and Evans were a team on screen and off from 1946 until Rogers death in 1998. Rogers and Evans had one child, Robin Elizabeth, who died of complications of Down's Syndrome shortly before her second birthday. Her life inspired Evans to write her best-seller Angel Unawares.

In addition to a series of successful TV shows, over 30 movies, and 200 songs, Evans wrote the well known songs Happy Trails and The Bible Tells Me So.

Evans has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (TV, Movie, Song).


Note: This profile was written in or before 2004.

Dale Evans Facts

Birth NameLucille Wood Smith
OccupationActress
BirthdayOctober 31, 1912
SignScorpio
BirthplaceUSA
Date of deathFebruary 7, 2001 (age 88)

Selected Filmography

Beauty and the Beast
Max Payne
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Under Siege
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising
Song Of Arizona
Home In Oklahoma
The Cowboy And The Senorita
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