LOS ANGELES — Dale Evans reigned until her death as the "Queen of the West," almost always alongside her husband of five decades, Roy Rogers, the "King of the Cowboys."
Evans, who died Wednesday of heart failure, employed her strong, sweet-natured affection for Rogers when she penned the couple's theme song, "Happy Trails to You." She was 88.
"Who cares about the clouds when we're together," she wrote. "Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather."
The couple's relationship endured five decades of work in radio, movies, music and television. When Rogers died in 1998 at age 86, Evans remembered him as "a wonderful human being."
"What a blessing to have shared my life together with him for almost 51 years," she said. "To say I will miss him is a gross understatement. He was truly the king of the cowboys in my life."
Evans died at her home in Apple Valley in the high desert east of Los Angeles, said her stepson, Roy "Dusty" Rogers Jr.
"We take comfort in knowing Dale and Roy are together again, riding 'Happy Trails' into the sunset," said Too Slim of the cowboy singing group "Riders In The Sky."
A memorial service was scheduled for Saturday.
"There's the last of the great ladies from a great era — the cowboy era," said Fran Boyd, executive director of the Academy of Country Music. "She was always really gracious and a very big supporter of her husband."
The first movie she made with Rogers, already an established singing cowboy star, was "Cowboy and the Senorita" in 1944. They married in 1947, and appeared together in 35 movies, including such Saturday afternoon favorites as "My Pal Trigger," "Apache Rose" and "Don't Fence Me In."
She rode her horse, Buttermilk, beside him on his celebrated palomino, Trigger.
When the B Western faded in the early 1950s, they began their television career. "The Roy Rogers Show" ran from 1951 to 1957. Later incarnations were "The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show" in 1962 and "Happy Trails Theatre," a show of repackaged Rogers and Evans movies on cable TV's Nashville Network from 1986-89.
In 1951, she wrote "Happy Trails," which became the couple's theme song. She also wrote the 1955 gospel music standard "The Bible Tells Me So," with the refrain, "How do I know? The Bible tells me so."
She and Rogers recorded more than 400 songs. Their most recent album was "Many Happy Trails," recorded in Nashville in 1985.
For years she was active in Christian evangelism, which she called "the most meaningful, the most enjoyable part of my life."
"She was one Hollywood personality who truly lived what she preached," said longtime friend Johnny Grant. "She was a strong supporter of the family and religion."
She wrote more than 20 books, including the best-selling "Angel Unaware," about her daughter Robin, the only child born to her and Rogers.
Robin, who had Down syndrome, died of complications from the mumps shortly before her second birthday in 1952.
The couple also adopted two daughters and a son and raised a daughter as foster parents. Evans also had a son by a previous marriage, and Rogers had a son and two daughters, one of them adopted, with his first wife.
One of the couple's adopted daughters, Debbie, died in a church bus crash in 1964, and their adopted son John choked to death while stationed in Germany with the Army in 1965.
Born Frances Octavia Smith on Oct. 31, 1912, in Uvalde, Texas, Evans was a girl when her family moved to Osceola, Ark., where she attended high school.
After working as a secretary in Chicago, she broke into local radio as a singer in Memphis, later working in Louisville, Dallas and Chicago. Along the way, her name was changed — over her objections — by a station manager who said Dale Evans was easier to pronounce.
After a stint on the weekly CBS radio show "News and Rhythm," she began working in Hollywood, appearing in films such as "Orchestra Wives" and "Swing Your Partner" before teaming with Rogers.
Besides Roy Jr., she is survived by her son by her first marriage, Tom Fox; adopted daughter Dodie Sailors; foster daughter Marion Swift; stepdaughter Linda Lou Johnson; adopted stepdaughter Cheryl Barnett; 16 grandchildren; and more than 30 great-grandchildren.
On the Net: