Topic: Dale Evans

Dale Evans was the stage name of Lucille Wood Smith (October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001), an American writer, movie star, and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

Born Lucille Wood Smith in Uvalde, Texas, her name was changed in infancy to Frances Octavia Smith. She had a tumultuous early life. At age 14, she eloped with her first husband, Thomas F. Fox. She bore one son, Thomas F. Fox, Jr., when she was 15. Divorced in 1929 at age 17, she married August Wayne Johns that same year, a union that ended in divorce in 1935.

She took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930s to promote her singing career. In 1937, she married her third husband, accompanist and arranger Robert Dale Butts. In 1947 she married Roy Rogers. The marriage was his third and her fourth. Dale had a son from her first marriage, Tom Jr. Roy had an adopted child, Cheryl, and two natural children, Linda and Roy (Dusty) Jr., from his second marriage. Evans and Rogers together had one child, Robin, and adopted four others: Mimi, Dodie, Sandy, and Debbie. They were married for 51 years.