Dale Evans

Dale Evans, star of film and TV Westerns and widow of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, was in serious but stable condition Wednesday after her pacemaker was replaced. Evans, 86, underwent the operation Tuesday evening. Her grandson, Dustin Rogers, said tests show she may have had a mild heart attack, and that her illness may have been prompted by a diet change and exhaustion. She suffered a heart attack in 1992 and a stroke in 1996.

Singing cowboy Roy Rogers devoted his life to keeping the spirit of the American West alive. As a testament to his legacy, fans can join his Riders Club, which boasted nearly 2.5 million members in the U.S. and 90,000 in England during its heyday in the 1950s. "He stood for morals and ethics and was a real-life hero to many," said his son, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr. Rogers starred in more than 80 films and "The Roy Rogers Show," which aired on NBC for six seasons and focused on family values and the cowboy lifestyle and had its own set of club rules such as "always obey your parents" and "be courteous and polite.

Dale Evans, the Texas stenographer with the melodic voice who became the buckskin-fringed "Queen of the West" and wife of "King of the Cowboys" Roy Rogers, died Wednesday. She was 88. Evans, a prolific writer of songs and books and an admired Christian lay leader, died of congestive heart failure at her home in Apple Valley, Calif., said Leonard Maltin, a film historian and family friend.

The Autry National Center announced Tuesday it has acquired the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Archive, containing materials and memorabilia from the duo's more than 50-year entertainment career. The collection includes newspaper clippings, programs from the Rose Parade and "The Roy Rogers Show," sheet music, promotional materials, licensed objects such as puzzles and coloring books, photographs and business files. Center officials said that once they have categorized and organized the materials, key items will be exhibited in the museum's Imagination Gallery.

Dale Evans, 79-year-old wife and show-business partner of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, was recovering Wednesday from a heart attack, her son said. Evans complained of chest pains early Sunday and her husband drove her to St. Mary Desert Valley Hospital, said Roy (Dusty) Rogers Jr. Doctors determined she had suffered a moderate heart attack, he said. "It was a real shocker to us," he said, noting that although his mother was in intensive care, she was doing much better and able to sit up in bed.

As a kid, he rooted for his white-hatted hero at Saturday matinees and carried a genuine "King of the Cowboys" lunch box to school each day. Today, at 53, Art Emr is still rooting for Roy Rogers. He's carrying the torch for the cowboy star to win the Academy Award that he never managed to rustle up with the 91 western films he made between 1935 and 1975.

Married Dec. 31, 1947 Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were on horseback ready to ride into the spotlight, if not the sunset, when he asked her to marry him. And in perfect keeping with the image of the King of the Cowboys, he did it with a song. It all began in 1944 when Dale was assigned to her first Roy Rogers feature, "The Cowboy and the Senorita." A radio, big band and nightclub vocalist, she didn't even know how to ride a horse. But she and Roy "hit it off from the start," reflects Dale today.

Hollywood movie stars from another era, Dale Evans and Jane Russell, captivated a small town in Washington as they helped celebrate the state's centennial. Inside the Elks Lodge in Colville, Wash., at a scheduled press conference, a dozen fans crowded around to hear Evans, 76, talk about such topics as how she changed her name from Francis Octavius Smith and Tom Cruise's performance in "Rain Man." Evans appeared on television and in more than 30 movies, mostly Westerns, with her husband, Roy Rogers.

And the Oscar for humility goes to: Gregory Walcott. The 82-year-old retired actor will attend the Academy Awards on Sunday night, with roughly 300 film and TV credits to his name. He's one of those journeymen whose face you recognize and whose name you don't. Walcott's date will be 14-year-old Isabel, his granddaughter, who will help her grandfather complete a goal he set for himself many years ago. That goal had nothing to do with fame or fortune or an Oscar nomination.

It was the summer of 1943 and I was delivering the Herald Express. There was a strange, eye-smarting haze that afternoon in Highland Park. I had seen this before but only in the winter after a cold snap, when they [would] light the smudge pots to save the oranges. This was different. They said it was because of all the new factories due to the war effort and [that it] would soon go away. It never did. Little did I know I had witnessed the birth of smog in Los Angeles. It started all of a sudden one hot summer afternoon, not at all gradually as one would suspect.

And the Oscar for humility goes to: Gregory Walcott. The 82-year-old retired actor will attend the Academy Awards on Sunday night, with roughly 300 film and TV credits to his name. He's one of those journeymen whose face you recognize and whose name you don't. Walcott's date will be 14-year-old Isabel, his granddaughter, who will help her grandfather complete a goal he set for himself many years ago. That goal had nothing to do with fame or fortune or an Oscar nomination.

The sprawling building housing the financially troubled Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in the Mojave Desert town of Victorville is for sale. The 33,000-square-foot structure on 50 acres beside Interstate 15 displays a collection paying homage to the "King of the Cowboys" and the "Queen of the West," who starred together in more than 30 motion pictures and two television series. He died in 1998 and she died last year. The couple's son, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr.

The couple leaned close to the glass to examine the biggest draw at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum--the mounted remains of Trigger, up on his hind legs, just as he was back when he was the Smartest Horse in the Movies. Former Maumee, Ohio, Police Chief Robert Bunce, 60, and his wife, Shelley, 52, were mesmerized by the famous palomino.

When Dale Evans was buried Saturday, many saw the service as representing not just the death of an American icon but also a reminder that a pop culture was coming to an end. In the past several years, most of the actors known as singing cowboys, who graced the silver screen through the 1950s, have died: "Queen of the West" Evans last Wednesday, her husband, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry in 1998, and Rex Allen in 1999.

Dale Evans, the Texas stenographer with the melodic voice who became the buckskin-fringed "Queen of the West" and wife of "King of the Cowboys" Roy Rogers, died Wednesday. She was 88. Evans, a prolific writer of songs and books and an admired Christian lay leader, died of congestive heart failure at her home in Apple Valley, Calif., said Leonard Maltin, a film historian and family friend.

It was the summer of 1943 and I was delivering the Herald Express. There was a strange, eye-smarting haze that afternoon in Highland Park. I had seen this before but only in the winter after a cold snap, when they [would] light the smudge pots to save the oranges. This was different. They said it was because of all the new factories due to the war effort and [that it] would soon go away. It never did. Little did I know I had witnessed the birth of smog in Los Angeles. It started all of a sudden one hot summer afternoon, not at all gradually as one would suspect.

When the Chatsworth Rail Station was dedicated a year ago, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans rode the train into the station to their signature tune, "Happy Trails to You." The song was written by Evans, and the books she wrote occupy at least half a shelf at the Homestead Museum at Chatsworth Park South. They are one of many signs that the king and queen of film westerns have had a long and friendly association with the San Fernando Valley.

Making Guthrie's song into the national anthem is a good idea. I've been sympathetic to the idea of replacing "The Star Spangled Banner" as the national anthem ever since I heard the idea expressed on "All in the Family" many years ago, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of replacing it with "America the Beautiful." I don't have anything against "The Star Spangled Banner," mind you. I don't have anything against "America the Beautiful," either. I just think we ought to change the national anthem, and I would personally like to see it replaced with something that, on the one hand, couldn't be objectionable to anyone while, on the other, wouldn't be so watered-down that it wouldn't be inspirational.

Dale Evans, star of film and TV Westerns and widow of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, was in serious but stable condition Wednesday after her pacemaker was replaced. Evans, 86, underwent the operation Tuesday evening. Her grandson, Dustin Rogers, said tests show she may have had a mild heart attack, and that her illness may have been prompted by a diet change and exhaustion. She suffered a heart attack in 1992 and a stroke in 1996.

As a kid, he rooted for his white-hatted hero at Saturday matinees and carried a genuine "King of the Cowboys" lunch box to school each day. Today, at 53, Art Emr is still rooting for Roy Rogers. He's carrying the torch for the cowboy star to win the Academy Award that he never managed to rustle up with the 91 western films he made between 1935 and 1975.