On this day in 1911, Leonard Slye, known to millions of fans as Roy Rogers, was born in Cincinnati.
As “King of the Cowboys,” Rogers (right, 1940) made nearly 100 movies, even more radio and television shows and helped found the legendary Western singing group, Sons of the Pioneers.
Rogers’ career in all things Western was at first based largely on music rather than horsemanship. Although the Slye family moved to the country when he was 8, farming didn’t pay all the bills. Roger’s father took a second job at a shoe factory and after just two years of high school, Roy followed.
He landed in California in 1929 after sister, Margaret, and her husband moved to Lawnsdale. Rogers drove a gravel truck for the State and when that job evaporated, lived in a Depression-era labor camp and worked as a fruit packer for DelMonte.
His first brush with show business was an audition for the Midnight Frolic radio show. His appearance in a homemade cowboy shirt won him a place with a local Western band, the Rocky Mountaineers. After struming and yodeling through half a dozen bands with names like Cowboys International , O-Bar-O Cowboys and the Texas Outlaws, he formed the Son’s Trio with two othe musicians, before becoming the Sons of the Pioneers.
Sons of the Pioneers
The band’s popularity and their hit record “Tumbling Tumbleweed” got Rogers noticed. He began appearing in Western movies, appearing with Gene Autry under his Leonard Slye. When Autry became too expensive for the studios, Leonard Slye was quickly rebranded as Roy Rogers.
His partnership with Dale Evans (right) began when they were married on New Years Eve in 1947, after the death of his second wife, Grace Arlene Wilkins the year before. It was his third marriage and Evan’s fourth, but it would be a partnership that lasted a lifetime.
Rogers popularity increased during the 1940s and he was listed by Box Office as the top earning Western star for nine consecutive years from 1943 to 1952. The Roy Rogers radio show was carried by 500 stations nationwide.
When television replaced radio, he, Evans, his famous horse Trigger, and a quartet of side kick,starred in 100 episodes of the Roy Rogers Show. The
Roger’s sidekicks, from left Gabby Hayes, Andy Devine, Smiley Burnette and Pat Brady
show’s theme song “Happy Trails” written by Evans was selected as one of the 100 best Western songs of all time by the Western Writers of America.
Rogers died of congestive heart failure July 6, 1998 at 87. Evans outlived Rogers by three years. Together the couple have a total of five stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame; Rogers for radio, film and television and Evans for radio and television. They both reside in the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Rogers was elected twice to the Country Music Hall of Fame as a founding member of Sons of the Pioneers.
The boyhood home of Roy Rogers was commemorated with a marker in 
2000. The Slye family moved to the home near Lucasville, Ohion, when Rogers was 8 and lived there until 1930. The marker is located north of the intersection with Mowhawk Drive (County Road 524), about four miles west of Lucasville. For information go to touringohio.com/Ohio’s Historical Markers, Marker #4-73.
© Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain.