August 26, 2022 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, we hear how the only natural born son of Roy Rogers, Roy "Dusty" Rogers, Jr., was raised by Roy and his wife Dale Evans along with their 8 other children. Roy and Dale were known to millions of Americans through TV, radio, and dozens of beloved Western movies, but most don't know about the couples strong faith and many adoptions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lei Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Up next, the story of a name
you all know, Roy Rogers, told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior.
(00:35):
Dusty has been acting and performing almost since birth. The
only natural born son of Roy, he was raised by
Roy and his wife Dale Evans, along with their eight children.
Roy and Dell were known to millions of Americans through TV,
radio and dozens of beloved Western movies. As a small child,
Dusty appeared in his parents TV show, The Roy Rogers Show.
(00:58):
Here's Dusty to share the behind the scene story of
what it was like growing up in the home of
the King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the West.
People say, well, when did you know your dad was famous?
I said, well, I really didn't know he was famous
at all till I was probably five. I mean I
went to the movie set with him when I was two.
(01:19):
I spent every birthday I think I can think of,
from two to five on the movie set with Dad.
Then all of a sudden, the reality came in that
this man does something other than just movies. He's very
popular with the populace, with the people. And of course
when we would go out on a road with him,
all of a sudden and we're surrounded by thousands of
people and especially young kids who loved them, and it
(01:41):
was a little bit difficult to swallow. Sometimes. You know,
you want you want your mom and dad yourself. You
don't want to share him with anybody, you know, when
you're young like that, I mean, they're wait a minute,
that's my mom and dad. What are you doing? You know,
So it was it was difficult in that way, and
I think all of us grew up under that, under
that veil of constant being photographed, constantly, being on the road,
(02:02):
constantly being Royendale's son and daughter who you know, didn't
matter if he were adopted or not. You were Royandale's
son or Royendale's daughter. Dale is my mother, I mean,
my biological mother passed away when I was just a
few days old. I never got the Norman at from mother.
She got an I was born by cesarean section, and
(02:23):
she got an embolism in her system, which at the
time in the forties. This was nineteen forty six, and
they didn't have any way of detecting blood clots in
this blood clotted formed during the cesrean operation, and it
just kind of set dormant there in her system because
there was no way of detecting them, and they didn't
get the ladies up and walk around like they do
to today after childbirth to help dissolve these clots away.
(02:45):
So this one just set dormant and Mom's system for
about four days five days, and when she became more
active so that the clot it began to move through
her system unbeknownst to anybody. And actually I was on
the bed ready to come home and Dad was on
his way to get us, and Mom just this embolism
hit her heart and she just her eyes back rolled
(03:07):
back at her head and she just fell back on
the bed and was gone that quick, no indication at
all that there was a problem. So, you know, of course,
for my dad it was devastating. He has three kids
and King of the Cowboys, and nineteen forty six was
a height through the man's career, and then all of
a sudden, overnight he finds himself a widower. With three
young uns and absolutely nobody in his life at that
(03:30):
point to take care of us kids. So he had
to really jump on at a bad time of his
life and try to get somebody in to take care
of us, and he hired nanny's to watch out over us,
so I never got to know money real mom. And
then when I was about a year and a half old,
he married Dale and she just kind of stepped in
and really took over with us kids, and we just
(03:50):
loved her death, I mean all of us did. I
think Cheryl had a little bit of a problem with
her early on, because Cheryl was kind of she was
the first one in the family. Dad at her first,
and because they didn't think that my mom and Roy
could have children, so they adopted cheryld and she was
kind of the queen bee. She was the one that
(04:11):
the oldest one, and she wanted to be the mom,
I mean she did. She wanted to take care of
me and Linda Loo and she just thought she'd step
into that role after mom at fat what she'd called
her mommy, passed away, and of course it didn't happen.
Dad needed some adults to do it. So but when
she married, when Dad married Dale because it was kind
of funny because Cheryl would always get between Dale and
(04:31):
Roy at events and stuff to try to keep them separated.
But you know, it was just the good Lord. It
was meant to be. And it didn't work out. But
Dale was my mother. I mean she came in and
when I was a year and a half old, and
all of us kids just loved her to death. And
I never knew any other mother, so she she was.
You know, a mother means a lot of things to
(04:51):
different people. There's your birth mother, and then of course
you don't know much about your mother till you get older.
Well that's where I would and Dale was my mom
by that time. So I couldn't ask for a better one.
Couldn't ask for a better one. Uh. Dad was an
old country boy and and things didn't really matter to him,
and he just he just loved to hunt and fish
(05:12):
and do what he want to do. Dale and the
Westerns he Dad fit into the Western's just like a
pair of you know, like a pair of good boots.
Mom didn't, she could care less about the Western She was.
She was an ingenue. She wanted to be She wanted
to be the big band singer she came out to
California to work in Buzzy Berkeley's musicals, and that's what
she wanted to do, a big band singer, you know.
(05:34):
And they sent her out to audition with Dad, and
they were looking for a Fox was actually Republic was
looking for a new leading lady for Dad, someone who
could sink, do, do everything. And so they called over
to Fox and they said, do you do you have
anybody that might we need a young leading lady for
(05:55):
Roy Rogers And they said, well, sure we do. Her
name's Dale Evans. And they said, well, the thing is,
she has to be beautiful, she has to sing like
a bird, and she has to be able to set
a horse. She needs to learn her she needs to
be able to ride. Oh yeah, Dale, she's some Texas
should fit the point. Mom had not been on a
horse since she was three or four years old on
(06:16):
her mom's farm, rama dad farm. So but they and
again the good Lords stepped in. They and Mom went
out to the the location, you know, dressed to the nines,
thinking she was going to try out for this music thing.
And she showed up in a long dress and thinking
she was going to play. And the next thing, they're
doing with The director said, Dale, we want you to
get up on this horse. I want you to ride
(06:37):
it into the street and sit there with Roy and
Gabby and big Boy Williams. And when I throw him
a hat down, I want you all to ride to
the camera and when you get close, just pull up
on your horse and we'll see how you look on horseback.
So she did, she got on a horse. I mean, mom,
Mom was a trooper. I mean, like Dad said, you
can tell a Texan, but not much. You cannot tell deal.
She can't do something because she'll just prove you wrong
(06:59):
every time. And you're listening to Dusty Rogers tell the
story of his mother and father, Roy and Dale Evans,
And my goodness, has happened so often in American life
or women would die of complications from childbirth, and so
many children die. When we return more of the story
of Roy Rogers as told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior.
(07:22):
Here on our American Story. Here at our American Stories,
we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
(07:44):
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a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American stories and with Dusty Rogers telling the story
of his mother and father. Roy and Dale Evans want
to be big band singer. Dale first met Roy Rogers
in nineteen forty four on the set of a western
movie where she was screen tested riding a horse. Let's
pick up here with Roy Rogers Junior again also known
(08:33):
as Dusty. She got on a horse and they took
off running and it came to the camera and they
guy dropped his hat and they pulled up and when
they did, the horse just jammed Mom into the saddle
just I mean, he just pounded her because she didn't
know how to set it right, and it broke, knocked
(08:54):
the caps off of her teeth and big Boy William's
horse set on her teeth. After the end, they were
all I get and had she had haven't redone? But
the producer said, well, d that wasn't too bad. Roy,
What do you think that's it. He said, I think
it was Billy Whitney at the time. And he said, Billy,
(09:16):
I swear I have never seen so much sky between
a woman's rand and a saddle in my life. But
she learned to ride, and that's and I think she
did something totally against what she really wanted to do,
because at that time, you did what you needed to
do to make money to survive. And but she fit
(09:38):
in so well and did it, did it so well. Dad,
he just had to be himself. But Mom was totally opposite.
But she learned to adapt and and go along with
what the thing was, which was western and cowboys songs,
and that's way away from big band and big orchestra music.
But Mom was a trooper and just always whatever the situation,
(10:00):
she stepped in and said I'm going to do it,
and did well she you know, I mean after the
birth of Tom, I'm sure. And then of course her
husband left her when she was just just young, and
of course then she was, like I said, starving and
trying to make a career. So she I think she
she always longed for a child, and so when she
married Roy and and they had a chance to have
(10:23):
a child of their own, you know, they jumped right
on it. And then of course when Robin was born
and and found out that that she had Down's syndrome. Again,
it was a shock originally, you know, I mean, you're
never ready for that. But then it's settled in that
this is a lovely human being that's from both of us.
(10:45):
You know, there must be a reason why they didn't know.
Nobody knew at that time what caused Downs. And they
recommended that they put her an institution. The doctor said,
you need to put her an institution. And Dad, so
you're kidding me. We're not putting her institution. She says,
this is our child. We're going to take her home
and love her. And so against the doctor's or, they did.
(11:07):
They took her home and made us. Dad built a
special area for her to protect her from us kids,
you know, because she was very fragile. And but even
during the time that Robin was there and very ill
um they did, both of them just loved that little
girl to death. I mean, it was just it was
part of them, and and and they wanted her they
(11:27):
of course, we all wanted her to survive. The doctor
said that probably she wouldn't but you don't know that,
you know, have had we had the medications they have
today for Down syndrome children. Robin probably could have lived
in her forties or fifties. We don't know. But it
was a gift from God. And and Dad always says,
(11:48):
we can never give a gift up. You never throw
her away. A gift is a gift no matter who
gives it to, you keep it. And and she was
not only gift to to Roy and Dale, but a
gift to all of us kids who got a chance
to know her. I was four and five, you know
at the time, and I couldn't physically, you know, wrestle
what they're like. I really wanted to, but she and
(12:10):
I communicated. She couldn't speak, of course, but we communicated
to it. She had certain giggles and last she'd do
and and she would we would play hide and seek.
I'd get under the crib, you know, and I'd reach
up and touch her arm, and she'd giggle and roll
try to see where I was. And that's the kind
of play we had. But she was just a sweetheart.
I still see her eyes and her looking through the
(12:31):
bars of that crib today. I mean, she just was
and that's why those kids are so special to me. Today,
my son Dustin and I we work with a group
out of Texas called d r I, which is Development Resources, Inc.
And they have group homes for kids that are that
have downs, and we work with help raising money because
a lot of them now, a lot of those I
(12:52):
tell people that there you have people bring bring them
to the show, the down syndrome kids, and and I'll say,
you know how lucky you are that you have one
of these special children. I said, I don't give them
to everybody. You know, he picks and choose who he
wants to have them, and they're his angels and doesn't
matter what color they are. They all have the same look,
(13:13):
and they all love music, and they love people. They
have their offs and downs like everybody does. You know,
there there moments of angry and little little fits and stuff.
But they love you unconditionally. And the only other person
I know it does that is either a dog or
God that loves you unconditionally, I mean, no matter what happened,
and uh, and that's what's special about them. And so
(13:36):
they've always been special to me and always will be.
I mean, they're just they're just wonderful, wonderful gifts from God.
And of course Mom and Dad knew that from from
the beginning that it was a gift, and and that's
why Mom wanted to write about it. She was puzzled
for the longest time on how I need to tell
Robin's story about I don't know how where do I?
Where do I go? And so she sat on a
(13:58):
park bench in New York and said, God, I don't
you know, give me some direction on how to write
this book as Angel Unaware a book I want to write.
And she said it was just an amazing thing that
the Good Lord put on her heart. Well, don't you
tell the story? Let Robin tell the story? Angel? Letna
(14:18):
where The book that Mom finished after Robin passed away
had a huge impact on a lot of different people.
And I think the biggest impact it really had were
on the families that were fortunate enough to have down
syndrome children, because it was always looked on as a stigma,
(14:39):
and I think people looked at down syndrome children as
something that they did wrong. It was their fault, not
realizing that God made it possible for them to have
one and that it was going to change their life
in the future, and like I said, he only gives
them to a few. But I think having Robin's story
(15:02):
told by Robin herself that she was okay, that yes,
that she had passed on and she'd moved. But God
sent her for a short time to be a blessing
to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. That was her job.
God sent her there to do that. And I think
(15:23):
the reality for a lot of folks who have Down
syndrome children, they never thought of it that way because
the public wouldn't let them. The public look down down
syndrome children as less than perfect. They're not, you know,
And instead of coming up and saying what a beautiful child,
they would come up and say, well, I'm so sorry.
Why they didn't know? They don't They didn't know, they don't.
(15:47):
And so the book allowed families to bring out those
children with them in public, and when the public could
actually see the beautiful smile of the love of music
and the excitement in their eyes, and even though a
lot of them couldn't talk, there was something there that
(16:08):
that you not seen before Mom and Dad and us two.
I mean when I was young, when I was only five,
I didn't see any down some syndrome children at out
at all. Up until after the book, probably a year
or so after the book was released, you started Mom
started looking and seeing them in the audience at wherever
(16:30):
they were because they felt that, well, if Roy and
Dale can be blessed with one of these children and
take them home and love them, why shouldn't we And
why shouldn't not? This child is special and they're a blessing,
So why why shouldn't I take something that I'm proud
of out and let them experience the world which is
(16:53):
cruel sometimes, but they're no different than anybody else. They
need to have a chance at life like you and
I had. And you've been listening to Roy Rogers Junior,
who goes by the name Dusty, telling the story of
his mother and father and also his sister Robin. And
my goodness, what a story he told about just his
(17:16):
mother's just can do spirit and actors and actresses at
the time, they just always took the work. And my goodness,
the storytelling on Robin or down syndrome child of Roy
and Dale. I wanted to tell Robin's story. Dale prayed
to God in a New York park bench, But I
don't know how an a bit later we learned that
(17:37):
God had sent her to the earth for a short
time to be a blessing to Roy and Dale. When
we come back, more of the story of Roy and
Dale Rodgers as told by their son Dusty Rogers. Here
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American
(18:10):
stories and with Dusty Rogers telling the story of his parents,
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Let's pick up where Dusty
last left off. I remember when Robin. I mean many
times I could see mom and dad holding each other
and crying because she had good days and had really
bad days. And I think for them it was a
(18:36):
challenge to do their every day be in front of
a camera, to be smiling, be in doing this when
they know part of them is at home slowly dying.
I think in their back of their mind they were
hoping that she would come through it all. But she
was so frail and had and us kids sometimes we
couldn't play with her because we had a cold or whatever,
(19:00):
you know, So it was it was a challenge that way.
And they had a nurse that took care of her
all the time. There was somebody with her all the time,
So I think there was some questioning of God, you
know what, what purposes? You know what? We know that
you've given this child to us? What? But but why? What?
What is it that you want us to do? What
(19:21):
is it? And that's what Mom, because she said, for
the longest time, I couldn't put the book together because
I didn't know. I didn't know what the purpose was.
And after she had passed on, and I remember Mom
and Dad and the day she died, Mom and Dad,
I think they spent at least eleven ten to eleven
hours out in the cardboard just holding each other and crying.
(19:44):
And we look out the window and they just be
sobbed holding each other. And I got to thinking, you know, wow,
I mean, you know again five years old, you know,
I couldn't understand why we couldn't see rob And then
we didn't know what happened. They didn't know quite how
to tell us, I guess, And it was a rough
it was a rough go. And that and how Mom
(20:04):
and Dad did what they did and still still say
Royan Dale and still do the obligations that they had
in life and still raise us kids and take care
of us and let us know that you know, Robin
was special, and you know, this isn't going to happen
to all of you. You're not going to all pass
(20:25):
away now. And I don't you know, she had, you know,
to try to explain that to your kids and make
it sound not so bad. But yet it was devastating
to them. It's a phenomenal thing. And I think they
questioned the grace of God, but yet it was the
grace of God who got him through it. Somebody asked
(20:47):
him one time, They said, Roy, when's the first time
you really realized that the kids of America really looked
up to you? And he said, in nineteen forty one,
playing Madison Square Garden. He said, I was walking back
by the cattle shoots and around the corner come to
this little guy about four years though, dressed exactly like me.
He said, That's when I knew that I had to
(21:09):
keep my life in line and that I owed these
kids something because they're looking up to me. I can't
say one thing and do another. And so he made
a pack then with himself. Then, good Lord, I'm sure
that he would do everything he could to keep his
image so that kids could look up to him and
mean something. And of course then that's and he was
(21:30):
hitting hospitals even then. And then and then when the
polio thing was so bad in the forties and fifties,
he would go to the hospital and he was fighting
all the time in his mind because I know he
believed in God, but he was he was angry at
God somewhat, I think, because he couldn't understand why, if
we have such a trusting and just and merciful God,
(21:53):
why he would allow children of all things, his youngest creations,
to come into this life and attacked by some terrible
disease or born with deformities, or born And I'm sure
he saw downs kids at that time too, and so
it was hard for him for a long time. He
couldn't understand why, it couldn't he couldn't reconcile why, and
(22:16):
so he was almost driven to the fact that he
wanted to go and see those kids and entertain them.
And many many stories I could tell you. The one
that hits the most is, you know, and a lot
of the kids who had polio in the forties were
put into iron lungs. Their lungs were undeveloped and they
needed help. And so these machines iron lungs would help
(22:38):
them breathe a little bit. Of course, they were in
this big iron tube with their heads sticking out and
laying flat, of course, and looking up through a mirror
that goes that direction, so they could at least see.
And Dad would would go there and he would he
would go up to the ward and he'd bring the
pioneers with him and they'd sing a couple of songs,
and then he would. Dad would actually go to each
(23:02):
iron lung and get around beside the child instead of
looking at him through a mirror, so he could get
eye contact with him, and he'd lean down and talk
to him, everyone of him a little bit. And he'd say,
you know, Billy, I know you're having trouble, you know,
but you know all good cowboys are tested. You know,
you've got you've got to buck up a little bit.
You've gotta you know, the cowboy way has not to
(23:24):
lay here and worry fred about it. It's to fight
and get out of here. And he said, I'm going
to help you. And he would he would bring these
gun belts with him, kids, gun belts with him in boxes,
and he would he would hang a gun belt up
on the mirror and of course people thought, well that's cruel,
as poor little kid, he's can't you got in his head?
Is all he's got out, and Roy's giving him a
gun belt? What is that? But then Dad would say,
(23:46):
when you get out of this iron lung, if you
fight hard enough and and you pray hard enough, you'll
get out. You'll eventually get out. And what I want
you to do is I want you to wear this
gun belt and I want you to, you know, play
cowboy like all arrests of boys and girls doing the country.
And then someday I wanted to come to Hollywood and
see me and Deson'll tell you We've had a lot
(24:07):
of over the last and I've had a band for
forty years, and I have seen so many people that
have come that were in iron lungs in the forties
that Dad came to the hospital, put up that gun belt,
and they got out and for some didn't, but most
of them got out and they still have a gun belt.
So in his somewhat little childish way, and I think
(24:32):
that's why kids loved him so much. He was as
big a kid at heart that they were. I thought,
if he gave him just a little of encouragement on
the level that they would understand. And if Roy tells
you to do it, especially in the forties, you did
it and it worked really well. Yeah, many of the
kids come to the show even today in the last
(24:53):
this last couple of years, I've had I've had three
in the last couple of years. They try to keep track.
They still lea the gun belt, and it is their
most prized position. They say, if it wasn't for this
gun belt, and it's most of the time it's in shatters,
I mean it's just tatters. Were the leathers weren't off,
all the spots have come off and stuff, and say,
I wore it everywhere and it worre to bed. My
(25:14):
mom used to get so mad at me because I
didn't want to wear it in the bath stuff, and
they stopped me from doing it. But it was their
most prized position and still is today. Mom knew that
they didn't want to have another child. They didn't want
because at that time they didn't know what caused downs.
(25:35):
They thought it might be an r H blood factor
problem one negative and one positive and their blood type,
but they weren't sure. So when they lost Robin just
before the second birthday, it had to be different. I mean,
I know it was very difficult because I saw it.
But they got back up on their feet and they
the Good Lord granted him grace and they were able
(25:57):
to get back up and go. But there still was
a void. And they just decided, well, if we can't
have any more of our own children, because we don't
know if we'll have another down syndroom child or not,
then we'll adopt. And you're listening to the son of
Roy and Dale Evans, Dusty Rogers. That's Roy Rogers Junior
telling the story of his parents to particularly after the
(26:20):
loss of his sister Robin at the age of two.
He was five at the time, and he remembers looking
outside his home and seeing his parents often just hugging
and crying. And what a thing to watch is a
five year old watching your own parents cope with grief
and then having to come right back in the house
and raise those kids and hit the line as professionals,
as actors, as superstars and just sort of put that
(26:43):
grief behind and move on. And the stories of him
visiting these kids with iron long machines and parking by
their sides, making eye contact and saying, all good cowboys
are tested. Finding words of encouragement for these kids, this
big international superstar, I mean, this art for kids, and
questioning God. As Dusty said, my parents questioned the grace
(27:07):
of God, but the grace of God also got them
through the ordeal. And when we come back more of
Roy Rogers story and his bride Dale as told by
their son, Dusty Rogers. Here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as told by their son,
Roy Rogers Junior, a k a. Dusty. Let's pick up
where he last left off. Dad felt bad for me
because I had any sisters and I had no brother.
I'm be knownst to me. They went on a trip
(27:58):
to Ohio and then went down from Ohio down to Kentucky,
down to Louisville, and they had heard of Orphanage. Dad
would always invite Orphanage to bring their kids over for
the show, and they had had a chance to visit
one of them. And then in Covington, Kentucky, and they
ran across this little boy and Dad was going around
shaking hands to all the little boys, and Sandy just
(28:20):
stuck out of his hand and said I would the partner,
and Dad just kind of fell in love with him.
You know, he was just a little he was stunted
in his growth, and he had all kinds of problems.
He's slept in a chair since he was born, practically
didn't know what a bed was, and they treated him
pretty badly. So they, you know, they said, this is
the guy we got to get for Dusty. And then
(28:40):
they stopped by Hope Cottage on the way back home
and they adopted a little American Indian girl chalked all
Indian Mary, little dog, call her Dody. So I'm coming
to the airport thinking I'm gonna meet mom and dad,
and down off the airplane comes to Dad. He's carrying
(29:01):
this little kid, and Mom's carrying a little girl, a
little baby girl. I got to think, and here, hey,
what's going on? You know? And uh, and I've got
pictures of our first meeting, Sandy and I first meeting,
and I did not like him. I thought, oh wait
a minute, just a minute, and I was the prince here.
(29:23):
Now all of a sudden, I got somebody horning in
on my spot and mom's mom explained, now this is
your new brother. His you know, his name is John
David Harry Hardy, but we're gonna call him Sandy. And
this is Dody. We're gonna a little Mary little Oh,
she's going to be your sister. Well, Dody I fell
in love with right away. But I had a hard
time with Sandy for a while. But uh, we grew
to be really good buds. And I protected him a
(29:44):
lot because he was smaller than me, and he was
you know, guys were picking on him all the time,
and he had a lot of physical problems and um,
but there was a there was and then of course
they I wasn't enough, you know. They a little later
on they adopted, well, got a little Marrian from they
had gone in nineteen fifty four. They went to England
(30:05):
and Scotland and Ireland and fell in love with a
little girl named Marian or her named with Marian Fleming,
and wanted to adopt her and couldn't because she international
adoptions weren't allowed, so they became her foster parent. And
then they adopted a little girl. And they wanted to
adopt a little girl. There was a when the ban
(30:26):
on international adoptions was listed and lifted in the sixties
they adopted a little girl from Soul, Korea. Her name
was in Nili, called her Debbi League And so I
just kept going on and on until they ended up
with a nine children total, and and uh boy, it
was a bunch, I'll tell you it was a bunch.
And you know, six months old, six and a half
(30:47):
months old, and nineteen you know, Tom was nineteen twenty
years old at that time. Aunt tell you we were.
It was wild and crazy, it really was. But Dad
pulled us all together, said, hey, you're all the same
in God's eyes. You're the same in your mothers and
my eyes, and you all be our kids, and you're
gonna all be treated equal. It doesn't matter if you're male, female, black, brown,
(31:07):
or blue. You know, you're in the Rogers family now
and you didn't ask to be, but here you are,
and so deal with it. And we did. We moved
to Apple Valley in about nineteen sixty five. I think
this was a year we moved up there. And the
reason we moved was a little Debbie, the Korean orphan
(31:29):
the year before sixty four, was on her way back
from Mexico. The church had done a good wheeled mission
down They were kind of kind of a sister church
and the bus blew a left front tire and it
came across the highway down their ocean side and was
(31:50):
hit head on by a station wagon. Of course, Debbie
and her friend were sitting right in the front seat
on the right side, and that's exactly where it hit.
And of course Debbie was killed again. My dad was
in the hospital at the time. He had his neck fused,
a third vertebrae, fourth vertebrae fused together. He had staff infection.
(32:11):
It was in bad shape in the hospital, and Debbie
was killed while he was there. And Mom, I mean,
poor Mom was just I mean, she was a basket case.
And they tried to keep all the news away from Dad.
Art went to the hospital and tried to keep him
from seeing anything or reading anything until everybody could be told.
And so long story short, the Chat's worth place for
(32:34):
my dad. I loved it there, but for my dad
became a sad place. It was where Debbie was and
and you know, he passed her bedroom every day, and
Debbie was kind of his favorite. Debbie was very outgoing
and and with Comba was set in Comba's hair, you know,
for hours and just you know, put curlers in it
(32:55):
and stuff, and she she was kind of his favorite,
and she just and he just she just laid it
to the hilt with him, and he had a very
close bond. So it was very difficult, you know, to
come home at night and see her room and see
her things. And so Dad just decided, we've we've got
to move. We got to get out of here. I
just isn't the same place that I remember. And so
(33:16):
we moved to Apple Valley in nineteen sixty five. I
was already there. I had moved up early. I was
there two or three weeks actually a little longer that
before Mom came up. They came up around Christmas time
and I started there in September, I think in school
senior year in high school. Mom and dad moved, which
was not a whole lot of fun for me, but
I again learned to adapt, okay. But then Mom and
(33:39):
Dad came up and they got a little house on
the highway. There was beautiful that Apple Valley was very
quiet and about eight thousand people and everybody knew Royndale.
I kind of left him alone, which was nice, and
everything was going really great. And then on October to
thirty first, my mom's birthday in nineteen sixty five, we
(34:01):
got a call from the Defense department of my brother
Sandy had choked to death while serving with army in Germany. Well,
here we go again, you know, and Dad especially took
it really bad. We got I think both of them.
Well Mom did too, but Dad was especially upset over
written again questioning you know how much how much more
(34:28):
God do you have to lay on us before you know? Well,
God doesn't give you choices, He doesn't tell you why
you know, and you may not know the reason for years.
But out of those deaths came beautiful books that Mom
had written. The cowboys had its cold Every cowboy had
(34:49):
their own ten coldes. Dads was different than hoppies. Hoppies
was different than gene. Dads was based on the Bible,
and it was based on the Ten Commandments, but it
was in child, in child wild words, but that they
could understand it. You need to go to Sunday school
every Sunday, and you need to where your parents, and
you need to eat all your food and no waste
any and there were you know, I'm just basically just
(35:10):
basic things that kids could. They wanted to aspire to
because they loved the men that told them that they
needed to. And it was the same when I was
a kid. Everybody who wanted to be a cowboy, even
the little girls, want to be a cowboy. I want to.
They would buy Roy Rogers stuff. They wouldn't buy the
Dale Evans outfits. They wanted Roy. We don't have that today.
There's nobody out there today to tell our children that
(35:33):
that's wrong. What you're doing is wrong. You need to
put that up and you need to This is where
you need to go and make them believe it. There's
no reality anymore. So I just wish that the producers
and directors and people in the media today would take
(35:56):
an account that they're still young. They may be and
they may have a spendable income when they're thirteen. Maybe
I don't know, but the target audience for most all
of almost everything today is seventeen to twenty seven, thirty,
maybe forty if you're lucky. Most of it's younger than
that because we've gotten away. We've gotten away from what's important,
(36:19):
and that's the family unit. My mom used to say,
does he when the family unit fails? In this country?
We are in big trouble, and you can see it
every day. That isn't the way this country was founded.
It wasn't the thing that our forefathers fought for. It
isn't what the Constitution was written for. But yet we've
gotten so far away from it and so far out
(36:40):
away from it. I don't know if we can come back.
We can if if as Americans we say our children
are not junk. God doesn't make junk. They deserve better.
What can we show them? What can we give them
that's better? And a terrific job and the storytelling and
editing by Kengler, and a special thanks to Roy Rogers
(37:02):
Junior a k a. Dusty sharing the story of his mother, father,
and sibling and my goodness what he said about his
father Dad felt bad for me because I didn't have
sisters or brothers. And of course the response by Roy
and Dale to that grief, the loss of his downs
in Jerome's sister, was adoption. The response to grief was love.
(37:27):
The response to loss was addition. The response to loss
was adoption, and not one, not two, but many more
would join the Roy Rogers family. And of course then
came those two losses and more questioning of God, how
much more are you going to lay on us? Dale?
And Roy said, and how many of us have been there?
(37:50):
And then of course the final lament by Roy Rogers Junior,
which was the family as all we have, Family will
save the country. Family and love is what saves every thing.
It makes life worth living. The story of Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans their family as told by Dusty Rogers
here on our American Story
This is Lei Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
And to search for the Our American Stories podcast, go
to the iHeartRadio app or Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Up next, the story of a name
you all know, Roy Rogers, told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior.
(00:35):
Dusty has been acting and performing almost since birth. The
only natural born son of Roy, he was raised by
Roy and his wife Dale Evans, along with their eight children.
Roy and Dell were known to millions of Americans through TV,
radio and dozens of beloved Western movies. As a small child,
Dusty appeared in his parents TV show, The Roy Rogers Show.
(00:58):
Here's Dusty to share the behind the scene story of
what it was like growing up in the home of
the King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the West.
People say, well, when did you know your dad was famous?
I said, well, I really didn't know he was famous
at all till I was probably five. I mean I
went to the movie set with him when I was two.
(01:19):
I spent every birthday I think I can think of,
from two to five on the movie set with Dad.
Then all of a sudden, the reality came in that
this man does something other than just movies. He's very
popular with the populace, with the people. And of course
when we would go out on a road with him,
all of a sudden and we're surrounded by thousands of
people and especially young kids who loved them, and it
(01:41):
was a little bit difficult to swallow. Sometimes. You know,
you want you want your mom and dad yourself. You
don't want to share him with anybody, you know, when
you're young like that, I mean, they're wait a minute,
that's my mom and dad. What are you doing? You know,
So it was it was difficult in that way, and
I think all of us grew up under that, under
that veil of constant being photographed, constantly, being on the road,
(02:02):
constantly being Royendale's son and daughter who you know, didn't
matter if he were adopted or not. You were Royandale's
son or Royendale's daughter. Dale is my mother, I mean,
my biological mother passed away when I was just a
few days old. I never got the Norman at from mother.
She got an I was born by cesarean section, and
(02:23):
she got an embolism in her system, which at the
time in the forties. This was nineteen forty six, and
they didn't have any way of detecting blood clots in
this blood clotted formed during the cesrean operation, and it
just kind of set dormant there in her system because
there was no way of detecting them, and they didn't
get the ladies up and walk around like they do
to today after childbirth to help dissolve these clots away.
(02:45):
So this one just set dormant and Mom's system for
about four days five days, and when she became more
active so that the clot it began to move through
her system unbeknownst to anybody. And actually I was on
the bed ready to come home and Dad was on
his way to get us, and Mom just this embolism
hit her heart and she just her eyes back rolled
(03:07):
back at her head and she just fell back on
the bed and was gone that quick, no indication at
all that there was a problem. So, you know, of course,
for my dad it was devastating. He has three kids
and King of the Cowboys, and nineteen forty six was
a height through the man's career, and then all of
a sudden, overnight he finds himself a widower. With three
young uns and absolutely nobody in his life at that
(03:30):
point to take care of us kids. So he had
to really jump on at a bad time of his
life and try to get somebody in to take care
of us, and he hired nanny's to watch out over us,
so I never got to know money real mom. And
then when I was about a year and a half old,
he married Dale and she just kind of stepped in
and really took over with us kids, and we just
(03:50):
loved her death, I mean all of us did. I
think Cheryl had a little bit of a problem with
her early on, because Cheryl was kind of she was
the first one in the family. Dad at her first,
and because they didn't think that my mom and Roy
could have children, so they adopted cheryld and she was
kind of the queen bee. She was the one that
(04:11):
the oldest one, and she wanted to be the mom,
I mean she did. She wanted to take care of
me and Linda Loo and she just thought she'd step
into that role after mom at fat what she'd called
her mommy, passed away, and of course it didn't happen.
Dad needed some adults to do it. So but when
she married, when Dad married Dale because it was kind
of funny because Cheryl would always get between Dale and
(04:31):
Roy at events and stuff to try to keep them separated.
But you know, it was just the good Lord. It
was meant to be. And it didn't work out. But
Dale was my mother. I mean she came in and
when I was a year and a half old, and
all of us kids just loved her to death. And
I never knew any other mother, so she she was.
You know, a mother means a lot of things to
(04:51):
different people. There's your birth mother, and then of course
you don't know much about your mother till you get older.
Well that's where I would and Dale was my mom
by that time. So I couldn't ask for a better one.
Couldn't ask for a better one. Uh. Dad was an
old country boy and and things didn't really matter to him,
and he just he just loved to hunt and fish
(05:12):
and do what he want to do. Dale and the
Westerns he Dad fit into the Western's just like a
pair of you know, like a pair of good boots.
Mom didn't, she could care less about the Western She was.
She was an ingenue. She wanted to be She wanted
to be the big band singer she came out to
California to work in Buzzy Berkeley's musicals, and that's what
she wanted to do, a big band singer, you know.
(05:34):
And they sent her out to audition with Dad, and
they were looking for a Fox was actually Republic was
looking for a new leading lady for Dad, someone who
could sink, do, do everything. And so they called over
to Fox and they said, do you do you have
anybody that might we need a young leading lady for
(05:55):
Roy Rogers And they said, well, sure we do. Her
name's Dale Evans. And they said, well, the thing is,
she has to be beautiful, she has to sing like
a bird, and she has to be able to set
a horse. She needs to learn her she needs to
be able to ride. Oh yeah, Dale, she's some Texas
should fit the point. Mom had not been on a
horse since she was three or four years old on
(06:16):
her mom's farm, rama dad farm. So but they and
again the good Lords stepped in. They and Mom went
out to the the location, you know, dressed to the nines,
thinking she was going to try out for this music thing.
And she showed up in a long dress and thinking
she was going to play. And the next thing, they're
doing with The director said, Dale, we want you to
get up on this horse. I want you to ride
(06:37):
it into the street and sit there with Roy and
Gabby and big Boy Williams. And when I throw him
a hat down, I want you all to ride to
the camera and when you get close, just pull up
on your horse and we'll see how you look on horseback.
So she did, she got on a horse. I mean, mom,
Mom was a trooper. I mean, like Dad said, you
can tell a Texan, but not much. You cannot tell deal.
She can't do something because she'll just prove you wrong
(06:59):
every time. And you're listening to Dusty Rogers tell the
story of his mother and father, Roy and Dale Evans,
And my goodness, has happened so often in American life
or women would die of complications from childbirth, and so
many children die. When we return more of the story
of Roy Rogers as told by Roy Dusty Rogers Junior.
(07:22):
Here on our American Story. Here at our American Stories,
we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
need to be told. But we can't do it without you.
Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not
(07:44):
free to make. If you love our stories in America
like we do, please go to our American Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
a lot, help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American stories and with Dusty Rogers telling the story
of his mother and father. Roy and Dale Evans want
to be big band singer. Dale first met Roy Rogers
in nineteen forty four on the set of a western
movie where she was screen tested riding a horse. Let's
pick up here with Roy Rogers Junior again also known
(08:33):
as Dusty. She got on a horse and they took
off running and it came to the camera and they
guy dropped his hat and they pulled up and when
they did, the horse just jammed Mom into the saddle
just I mean, he just pounded her because she didn't
know how to set it right, and it broke, knocked
(08:54):
the caps off of her teeth and big Boy William's
horse set on her teeth. After the end, they were
all I get and had she had haven't redone? But
the producer said, well, d that wasn't too bad. Roy,
What do you think that's it. He said, I think
it was Billy Whitney at the time. And he said, Billy,
(09:16):
I swear I have never seen so much sky between
a woman's rand and a saddle in my life. But
she learned to ride, and that's and I think she
did something totally against what she really wanted to do,
because at that time, you did what you needed to
do to make money to survive. And but she fit
(09:38):
in so well and did it, did it so well. Dad,
he just had to be himself. But Mom was totally opposite.
But she learned to adapt and and go along with
what the thing was, which was western and cowboys songs,
and that's way away from big band and big orchestra music.
But Mom was a trooper and just always whatever the situation,
(10:00):
she stepped in and said I'm going to do it,
and did well she you know, I mean after the
birth of Tom, I'm sure. And then of course her
husband left her when she was just just young, and
of course then she was, like I said, starving and
trying to make a career. So she I think she
she always longed for a child, and so when she
married Roy and and they had a chance to have
(10:23):
a child of their own, you know, they jumped right
on it. And then of course when Robin was born
and and found out that that she had Down's syndrome. Again,
it was a shock originally, you know, I mean, you're
never ready for that. But then it's settled in that
this is a lovely human being that's from both of us.
(10:45):
You know, there must be a reason why they didn't know.
Nobody knew at that time what caused Downs. And they
recommended that they put her an institution. The doctor said,
you need to put her an institution. And Dad, so
you're kidding me. We're not putting her institution. She says,
this is our child. We're going to take her home
and love her. And so against the doctor's or, they did.
(11:07):
They took her home and made us. Dad built a
special area for her to protect her from us kids,
you know, because she was very fragile. And but even
during the time that Robin was there and very ill
um they did, both of them just loved that little
girl to death. I mean, it was just it was
part of them, and and and they wanted her they
(11:27):
of course, we all wanted her to survive. The doctor
said that probably she wouldn't but you don't know that,
you know, have had we had the medications they have
today for Down syndrome children. Robin probably could have lived
in her forties or fifties. We don't know. But it
was a gift from God. And and Dad always says,
(11:48):
we can never give a gift up. You never throw
her away. A gift is a gift no matter who
gives it to, you keep it. And and she was
not only gift to to Roy and Dale, but a
gift to all of us kids who got a chance
to know her. I was four and five, you know
at the time, and I couldn't physically, you know, wrestle
what they're like. I really wanted to, but she and
(12:10):
I communicated. She couldn't speak, of course, but we communicated
to it. She had certain giggles and last she'd do
and and she would we would play hide and seek.
I'd get under the crib, you know, and I'd reach
up and touch her arm, and she'd giggle and roll
try to see where I was. And that's the kind
of play we had. But she was just a sweetheart.
I still see her eyes and her looking through the
(12:31):
bars of that crib today. I mean, she just was
and that's why those kids are so special to me. Today,
my son Dustin and I we work with a group
out of Texas called d r I, which is Development Resources, Inc.
And they have group homes for kids that are that
have downs, and we work with help raising money because
a lot of them now, a lot of those I
(12:52):
tell people that there you have people bring bring them
to the show, the down syndrome kids, and and I'll say,
you know how lucky you are that you have one
of these special children. I said, I don't give them
to everybody. You know, he picks and choose who he
wants to have them, and they're his angels and doesn't
matter what color they are. They all have the same look,
(13:13):
and they all love music, and they love people. They
have their offs and downs like everybody does. You know,
there there moments of angry and little little fits and stuff.
But they love you unconditionally. And the only other person
I know it does that is either a dog or
God that loves you unconditionally, I mean, no matter what happened,
and uh, and that's what's special about them. And so
(13:36):
they've always been special to me and always will be.
I mean, they're just they're just wonderful, wonderful gifts from God.
And of course Mom and Dad knew that from from
the beginning that it was a gift, and and that's
why Mom wanted to write about it. She was puzzled
for the longest time on how I need to tell
Robin's story about I don't know how where do I?
Where do I go? And so she sat on a
(13:58):
park bench in New York and said, God, I don't
you know, give me some direction on how to write
this book as Angel Unaware a book I want to write.
And she said it was just an amazing thing that
the Good Lord put on her heart. Well, don't you
tell the story? Let Robin tell the story? Angel? Letna
(14:18):
where The book that Mom finished after Robin passed away
had a huge impact on a lot of different people.
And I think the biggest impact it really had were
on the families that were fortunate enough to have down
syndrome children, because it was always looked on as a stigma,
(14:39):
and I think people looked at down syndrome children as
something that they did wrong. It was their fault, not
realizing that God made it possible for them to have
one and that it was going to change their life
in the future, and like I said, he only gives
them to a few. But I think having Robin's story
(15:02):
told by Robin herself that she was okay, that yes,
that she had passed on and she'd moved. But God
sent her for a short time to be a blessing
to Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. That was her job.
God sent her there to do that. And I think
(15:23):
the reality for a lot of folks who have Down
syndrome children, they never thought of it that way because
the public wouldn't let them. The public look down down
syndrome children as less than perfect. They're not, you know,
And instead of coming up and saying what a beautiful child,
they would come up and say, well, I'm so sorry.
Why they didn't know? They don't They didn't know, they don't.
(15:47):
And so the book allowed families to bring out those
children with them in public, and when the public could
actually see the beautiful smile of the love of music
and the excitement in their eyes, and even though a
lot of them couldn't talk, there was something there that
(16:08):
that you not seen before Mom and Dad and us two.
I mean when I was young, when I was only five,
I didn't see any down some syndrome children at out
at all. Up until after the book, probably a year
or so after the book was released, you started Mom
started looking and seeing them in the audience at wherever
(16:30):
they were because they felt that, well, if Roy and
Dale can be blessed with one of these children and
take them home and love them, why shouldn't we And
why shouldn't not? This child is special and they're a blessing,
So why why shouldn't I take something that I'm proud
of out and let them experience the world which is
(16:53):
cruel sometimes, but they're no different than anybody else. They
need to have a chance at life like you and
I had. And you've been listening to Roy Rogers Junior,
who goes by the name Dusty, telling the story of
his mother and father and also his sister Robin. And
my goodness, what a story he told about just his
(17:16):
mother's just can do spirit and actors and actresses at
the time, they just always took the work. And my goodness,
the storytelling on Robin or down syndrome child of Roy
and Dale. I wanted to tell Robin's story. Dale prayed
to God in a New York park bench, But I
don't know how an a bit later we learned that
(17:37):
God had sent her to the earth for a short
time to be a blessing to Roy and Dale. When
we come back, more of the story of Roy and
Dale Rodgers as told by their son Dusty Rogers. Here
on our American Stories. And we continue with our American
(18:10):
stories and with Dusty Rogers telling the story of his parents,
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Let's pick up where Dusty
last left off. I remember when Robin. I mean many
times I could see mom and dad holding each other
and crying because she had good days and had really
bad days. And I think for them it was a
(18:36):
challenge to do their every day be in front of
a camera, to be smiling, be in doing this when
they know part of them is at home slowly dying.
I think in their back of their mind they were
hoping that she would come through it all. But she
was so frail and had and us kids sometimes we
couldn't play with her because we had a cold or whatever,
(19:00):
you know, So it was it was a challenge that way.
And they had a nurse that took care of her
all the time. There was somebody with her all the time,
So I think there was some questioning of God, you
know what, what purposes? You know what? We know that
you've given this child to us? What? But but why? What?
What is it that you want us to do? What
(19:21):
is it? And that's what Mom, because she said, for
the longest time, I couldn't put the book together because
I didn't know. I didn't know what the purpose was.
And after she had passed on, and I remember Mom
and Dad and the day she died, Mom and Dad,
I think they spent at least eleven ten to eleven
hours out in the cardboard just holding each other and crying.
(19:44):
And we look out the window and they just be
sobbed holding each other. And I got to thinking, you know, wow,
I mean, you know again five years old, you know,
I couldn't understand why we couldn't see rob And then
we didn't know what happened. They didn't know quite how
to tell us, I guess, And it was a rough
it was a rough go. And that and how Mom
(20:04):
and Dad did what they did and still still say
Royan Dale and still do the obligations that they had
in life and still raise us kids and take care
of us and let us know that you know, Robin
was special, and you know, this isn't going to happen
to all of you. You're not going to all pass
(20:25):
away now. And I don't you know, she had, you know,
to try to explain that to your kids and make
it sound not so bad. But yet it was devastating
to them. It's a phenomenal thing. And I think they
questioned the grace of God, but yet it was the
grace of God who got him through it. Somebody asked
(20:47):
him one time, They said, Roy, when's the first time
you really realized that the kids of America really looked
up to you? And he said, in nineteen forty one,
playing Madison Square Garden. He said, I was walking back
by the cattle shoots and around the corner come to
this little guy about four years though, dressed exactly like me.
He said, That's when I knew that I had to
(21:09):
keep my life in line and that I owed these
kids something because they're looking up to me. I can't
say one thing and do another. And so he made
a pack then with himself. Then, good Lord, I'm sure
that he would do everything he could to keep his
image so that kids could look up to him and
mean something. And of course then that's and he was
(21:30):
hitting hospitals even then. And then and then when the
polio thing was so bad in the forties and fifties,
he would go to the hospital and he was fighting
all the time in his mind because I know he
believed in God, but he was he was angry at
God somewhat, I think, because he couldn't understand why, if
we have such a trusting and just and merciful God,
(21:53):
why he would allow children of all things, his youngest creations,
to come into this life and attacked by some terrible
disease or born with deformities, or born And I'm sure
he saw downs kids at that time too, and so
it was hard for him for a long time. He
couldn't understand why, it couldn't he couldn't reconcile why, and
(22:16):
so he was almost driven to the fact that he
wanted to go and see those kids and entertain them.
And many many stories I could tell you. The one
that hits the most is, you know, and a lot
of the kids who had polio in the forties were
put into iron lungs. Their lungs were undeveloped and they
needed help. And so these machines iron lungs would help
(22:38):
them breathe a little bit. Of course, they were in
this big iron tube with their heads sticking out and
laying flat, of course, and looking up through a mirror
that goes that direction, so they could at least see.
And Dad would would go there and he would he
would go up to the ward and he'd bring the
pioneers with him and they'd sing a couple of songs,
and then he would. Dad would actually go to each
(23:02):
iron lung and get around beside the child instead of
looking at him through a mirror, so he could get
eye contact with him, and he'd lean down and talk
to him, everyone of him a little bit. And he'd say,
you know, Billy, I know you're having trouble, you know,
but you know all good cowboys are tested. You know,
you've got you've got to buck up a little bit.
You've gotta you know, the cowboy way has not to
(23:24):
lay here and worry fred about it. It's to fight
and get out of here. And he said, I'm going
to help you. And he would he would bring these
gun belts with him, kids, gun belts with him in boxes,
and he would he would hang a gun belt up
on the mirror and of course people thought, well that's cruel,
as poor little kid, he's can't you got in his head?
Is all he's got out, and Roy's giving him a
gun belt? What is that? But then Dad would say,
(23:46):
when you get out of this iron lung, if you
fight hard enough and and you pray hard enough, you'll
get out. You'll eventually get out. And what I want
you to do is I want you to wear this
gun belt and I want you to, you know, play
cowboy like all arrests of boys and girls doing the country.
And then someday I wanted to come to Hollywood and
see me and Deson'll tell you We've had a lot
(24:07):
of over the last and I've had a band for
forty years, and I have seen so many people that
have come that were in iron lungs in the forties
that Dad came to the hospital, put up that gun belt,
and they got out and for some didn't, but most
of them got out and they still have a gun belt.
So in his somewhat little childish way, and I think
(24:32):
that's why kids loved him so much. He was as
big a kid at heart that they were. I thought,
if he gave him just a little of encouragement on
the level that they would understand. And if Roy tells
you to do it, especially in the forties, you did
it and it worked really well. Yeah, many of the
kids come to the show even today in the last
(24:53):
this last couple of years, I've had I've had three
in the last couple of years. They try to keep track.
They still lea the gun belt, and it is their
most prized position. They say, if it wasn't for this
gun belt, and it's most of the time it's in shatters,
I mean it's just tatters. Were the leathers weren't off,
all the spots have come off and stuff, and say,
I wore it everywhere and it worre to bed. My
(25:14):
mom used to get so mad at me because I
didn't want to wear it in the bath stuff, and
they stopped me from doing it. But it was their
most prized position and still is today. Mom knew that
they didn't want to have another child. They didn't want
because at that time they didn't know what caused downs.
(25:35):
They thought it might be an r H blood factor
problem one negative and one positive and their blood type,
but they weren't sure. So when they lost Robin just
before the second birthday, it had to be different. I mean,
I know it was very difficult because I saw it.
But they got back up on their feet and they
the Good Lord granted him grace and they were able
(25:57):
to get back up and go. But there still was
a void. And they just decided, well, if we can't
have any more of our own children, because we don't
know if we'll have another down syndroom child or not,
then we'll adopt. And you're listening to the son of
Roy and Dale Evans, Dusty Rogers. That's Roy Rogers Junior
telling the story of his parents to particularly after the
(26:20):
loss of his sister Robin at the age of two.
He was five at the time, and he remembers looking
outside his home and seeing his parents often just hugging
and crying. And what a thing to watch is a
five year old watching your own parents cope with grief
and then having to come right back in the house
and raise those kids and hit the line as professionals,
as actors, as superstars and just sort of put that
(26:43):
grief behind and move on. And the stories of him
visiting these kids with iron long machines and parking by
their sides, making eye contact and saying, all good cowboys
are tested. Finding words of encouragement for these kids, this
big international superstar, I mean, this art for kids, and
questioning God. As Dusty said, my parents questioned the grace
(27:07):
of God, but the grace of God also got them
through the ordeal. And when we come back more of
Roy Rogers story and his bride Dale as told by
their son, Dusty Rogers. Here on our American stories, and
(27:37):
we continue with our American stories and the story of
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans as told by their son,
Roy Rogers Junior, a k a. Dusty. Let's pick up
where he last left off. Dad felt bad for me
because I had any sisters and I had no brother.
I'm be knownst to me. They went on a trip
(27:58):
to Ohio and then went down from Ohio down to Kentucky,
down to Louisville, and they had heard of Orphanage. Dad
would always invite Orphanage to bring their kids over for
the show, and they had had a chance to visit
one of them. And then in Covington, Kentucky, and they
ran across this little boy and Dad was going around
shaking hands to all the little boys, and Sandy just
(28:20):
stuck out of his hand and said I would the partner,
and Dad just kind of fell in love with him.
You know, he was just a little he was stunted
in his growth, and he had all kinds of problems.
He's slept in a chair since he was born, practically
didn't know what a bed was, and they treated him
pretty badly. So they, you know, they said, this is
the guy we got to get for Dusty. And then
(28:40):
they stopped by Hope Cottage on the way back home
and they adopted a little American Indian girl chalked all
Indian Mary, little dog, call her Dody. So I'm coming
to the airport thinking I'm gonna meet mom and dad,
and down off the airplane comes to Dad. He's carrying
(29:01):
this little kid, and Mom's carrying a little girl, a
little baby girl. I got to think, and here, hey,
what's going on? You know? And uh, and I've got
pictures of our first meeting, Sandy and I first meeting,
and I did not like him. I thought, oh wait
a minute, just a minute, and I was the prince here.
(29:23):
Now all of a sudden, I got somebody horning in
on my spot and mom's mom explained, now this is
your new brother. His you know, his name is John
David Harry Hardy, but we're gonna call him Sandy. And
this is Dody. We're gonna a little Mary little Oh,
she's going to be your sister. Well, Dody I fell
in love with right away. But I had a hard
time with Sandy for a while. But uh, we grew
to be really good buds. And I protected him a
(29:44):
lot because he was smaller than me, and he was
you know, guys were picking on him all the time,
and he had a lot of physical problems and um,
but there was a there was and then of course
they I wasn't enough, you know. They a little later
on they adopted, well, got a little Marrian from they
had gone in nineteen fifty four. They went to England
(30:05):
and Scotland and Ireland and fell in love with a
little girl named Marian or her named with Marian Fleming,
and wanted to adopt her and couldn't because she international
adoptions weren't allowed, so they became her foster parent. And
then they adopted a little girl. And they wanted to
adopt a little girl. There was a when the ban
(30:26):
on international adoptions was listed and lifted in the sixties
they adopted a little girl from Soul, Korea. Her name
was in Nili, called her Debbi League And so I
just kept going on and on until they ended up
with a nine children total, and and uh boy, it
was a bunch, I'll tell you it was a bunch.
And you know, six months old, six and a half
(30:47):
months old, and nineteen you know, Tom was nineteen twenty
years old at that time. Aunt tell you we were.
It was wild and crazy, it really was. But Dad
pulled us all together, said, hey, you're all the same
in God's eyes. You're the same in your mothers and
my eyes, and you all be our kids, and you're
gonna all be treated equal. It doesn't matter if you're male, female, black, brown,
(31:07):
or blue. You know, you're in the Rogers family now
and you didn't ask to be, but here you are,
and so deal with it. And we did. We moved
to Apple Valley in about nineteen sixty five. I think
this was a year we moved up there. And the
reason we moved was a little Debbie, the Korean orphan
(31:29):
the year before sixty four, was on her way back
from Mexico. The church had done a good wheeled mission
down They were kind of kind of a sister church
and the bus blew a left front tire and it
came across the highway down their ocean side and was
(31:50):
hit head on by a station wagon. Of course, Debbie
and her friend were sitting right in the front seat
on the right side, and that's exactly where it hit.
And of course Debbie was killed again. My dad was
in the hospital at the time. He had his neck fused,
a third vertebrae, fourth vertebrae fused together. He had staff infection.
(32:11):
It was in bad shape in the hospital, and Debbie
was killed while he was there. And Mom, I mean,
poor Mom was just I mean, she was a basket case.
And they tried to keep all the news away from Dad.
Art went to the hospital and tried to keep him
from seeing anything or reading anything until everybody could be told.
And so long story short, the Chat's worth place for
(32:34):
my dad. I loved it there, but for my dad
became a sad place. It was where Debbie was and
and you know, he passed her bedroom every day, and
Debbie was kind of his favorite. Debbie was very outgoing
and and with Comba was set in Comba's hair, you know,
for hours and just you know, put curlers in it
(32:55):
and stuff, and she she was kind of his favorite,
and she just and he just she just laid it
to the hilt with him, and he had a very
close bond. So it was very difficult, you know, to
come home at night and see her room and see
her things. And so Dad just decided, we've we've got
to move. We got to get out of here. I
just isn't the same place that I remember. And so
(33:16):
we moved to Apple Valley in nineteen sixty five. I
was already there. I had moved up early. I was
there two or three weeks actually a little longer that
before Mom came up. They came up around Christmas time
and I started there in September, I think in school
senior year in high school. Mom and dad moved, which
was not a whole lot of fun for me, but
I again learned to adapt, okay. But then Mom and
(33:39):
Dad came up and they got a little house on
the highway. There was beautiful that Apple Valley was very
quiet and about eight thousand people and everybody knew Royndale.
I kind of left him alone, which was nice, and
everything was going really great. And then on October to
thirty first, my mom's birthday in nineteen sixty five, we
(34:01):
got a call from the Defense department of my brother
Sandy had choked to death while serving with army in Germany. Well,
here we go again, you know, and Dad especially took
it really bad. We got I think both of them.
Well Mom did too, but Dad was especially upset over
written again questioning you know how much how much more
(34:28):
God do you have to lay on us before you know? Well,
God doesn't give you choices, He doesn't tell you why
you know, and you may not know the reason for years.
But out of those deaths came beautiful books that Mom
had written. The cowboys had its cold Every cowboy had
(34:49):
their own ten coldes. Dads was different than hoppies. Hoppies
was different than gene. Dads was based on the Bible,
and it was based on the Ten Commandments, but it
was in child, in child wild words, but that they
could understand it. You need to go to Sunday school
every Sunday, and you need to where your parents, and
you need to eat all your food and no waste
any and there were you know, I'm just basically just
(35:10):
basic things that kids could. They wanted to aspire to
because they loved the men that told them that they
needed to. And it was the same when I was
a kid. Everybody who wanted to be a cowboy, even
the little girls, want to be a cowboy. I want to.
They would buy Roy Rogers stuff. They wouldn't buy the
Dale Evans outfits. They wanted Roy. We don't have that today.
There's nobody out there today to tell our children that
(35:33):
that's wrong. What you're doing is wrong. You need to
put that up and you need to This is where
you need to go and make them believe it. There's
no reality anymore. So I just wish that the producers
and directors and people in the media today would take
(35:56):
an account that they're still young. They may be and
they may have a spendable income when they're thirteen. Maybe
I don't know, but the target audience for most all
of almost everything today is seventeen to twenty seven, thirty,
maybe forty if you're lucky. Most of it's younger than
that because we've gotten away. We've gotten away from what's important,
(36:19):
and that's the family unit. My mom used to say,
does he when the family unit fails? In this country?
We are in big trouble, and you can see it
every day. That isn't the way this country was founded.
It wasn't the thing that our forefathers fought for. It
isn't what the Constitution was written for. But yet we've
gotten so far away from it and so far out
(36:40):
away from it. I don't know if we can come back.
We can if if as Americans we say our children
are not junk. God doesn't make junk. They deserve better.
What can we show them? What can we give them
that's better? And a terrific job and the storytelling and
editing by Kengler, and a special thanks to Roy Rogers
(37:02):
Junior a k a. Dusty sharing the story of his mother, father,
and sibling and my goodness what he said about his
father Dad felt bad for me because I didn't have
sisters or brothers. And of course the response by Roy
and Dale to that grief, the loss of his downs
in Jerome's sister, was adoption. The response to grief was love.
(37:27):
The response to loss was addition. The response to loss
was adoption, and not one, not two, but many more
would join the Roy Rogers family. And of course then
came those two losses and more questioning of God, how
much more are you going to lay on us? Dale?
And Roy said, and how many of us have been there?
(37:50):
And then of course the final lament by Roy Rogers Junior,
which was the family as all we have, Family will
save the country. Family and love is what saves every thing.
It makes life worth living. The story of Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans their family as told by Dusty Rogers
here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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