System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Dated July 7, 1998
American hero
Riding into a final sunset, singing cowboy Roy Rogers is remembered for a humble heart and a lasting legacy on Western music.
Roy Rogers was as gracious and good-hearted in real life as he appeared on the silver screen, his friends say.
And as is true of his movies – in which the good guy always wins, gets the girl and rides happily off into the sunset on his trusty steed – Rogers’ life has a happy ending.
”I know he’s happy where he is now,” said Dale Warren of the Sons of the Pioneers, the legendary Western music group Rogers co-founded in 1933 with Tucsonan Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer.
”He’s up there with Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, Lloyd Perryman, Pat Brady and a whole bunch of others,” said Warren, who winters in Tucson. ”They’re probably having a singalong right about now.”
”He had a wonderful life,” said Western movie star Rex Allen Sr. from his Tucson home. ”I’m proud that I knew him. I’m really proud that I knew him well.
”You’d have liked him. Everybody liked him. He left a great legacy.”
Rogers died in California yesterday of congestive heart failure at age 86.
His career, which spanned seven decades, occasionally brought him to Tucson. In the 1970s, he appeared in a TV show called ”The Over-the-Hill Gang,” which was filmed at Old Tucson Studios, said Old Tucson founder Robert Shelton.
Rogers was a longtime member of the Tucson-based Western Music Association, which honored Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, during the group’s annual festival in 1994.
Rex Allen, who followed Rogers into Western movies at Republic Pictures, last saw Rogers a couple of years ago here in Tucson.
”We had a nice, long visit for about three or four hours,” Allen said yesterday. ”We talked about old times at Republic, all that stuff.
”I’ve lost a dear friend,” Allen continued. ”We used to hunt together, fish. He really enjoyed life. I will really miss him.”
Warren said there were too many memories over a 45-year friendship with Rogers to single out any one.
”There are so many things I would like to say,” Warren said yesterday from Branson, Mo., where, in Rogers’ memory, the Sons of the Pioneers canceled this week’s performances at their theater.
”It’s like a part of history has left us,” Warren added. ”But it’ll keep going on. The Pioneers will make sure of that.”
Rogers founded the Sons of the Pioneers in 1933 with Nolan, who wrote the classic Western songs ”Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and ”Cool Water,” and Spencer. Other members over the years included Lloyd Perryman, Pat Brady, Rusty Richards, Roy Lanham, Doye O’Dell, Ken Carson, Deuce Spriggins, Tommy Doss and Ken Curtis.
The Pioneers often joined Rogers on the road and in his movies.
Warren joined the Pioneers in 1952, long after Rogers had left to pursue a solo singing and acting career. Warren, who as a boy dropped many a dime into theater coffers to watch Roy Rogers’ movies, remembered being nervous meeting his idol in 1953.
”It was a chance to meet a hero,” said Warren, who was in his 20s when they met.
The Pioneers had been asked to accompany Rogers on a tour. They met up at Rogers’ house for a rehearsal.
”I was pretty nervous,” Warren recalled. ”I got to meet my hero. Dale, too. It was a wonderful experience for a young fella back in those days.
”All I can say is, it’s been the highlight of my life being able to know such a wonderful person who was my hero, and getting to sing with him.”
Warren last saw Rogers in May 1997, for a golden wedding anniversary gala. Rogers and Evans joined the Pioneers for what would be the couple’s last public performance of Rogers’ signature song, ”Happy Trails.” Evans, who wrote the song, was weak and in a wheelchair, having suffered a stroke earlier in the year, but she insisted on standing with Rogers and the Pioneers on stage.
”It was quite a moment,” Warren said.
Western music historian Fred Goodwin, a member of the WMA and longtime Rogers family friend, said Rogers was rarely credited for his impact on Western music.
”He was the father of cowboy popular music as we know it today,” Goodwin said yesterday. ”Like Bill Monroe is the father of bluegrass music, Roy Rogers is the father of modern cowboy music.”
Rogers was the one who developed the Sons of the Pioneers’ three-harmony sound, which became the group’s trademark, Goodwin said.
Rogers taught himself to play the guitar, Goodwin added, as well as to yodel.
”Roy was one of the best guitar players there was during his time. That’s something that he’s not given a lot of credit for.”
Even Rogers’ singing cowboy counterpart, Gene Autry, was influenced by his music. Goodwin noted that Autry’s first movie was titled ”Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” after the Pioneers’ hit song.
Jimmy Wakely’s Saddle Pals trio, which included the late legendary Western artist Johnny Bond, was a ”carbon copy” of the Pioneers, Goodwin said.
Bond’s daughter, Sherry, said her father admired Rogers very much.
”Everyone felt the same way about Roy,” said Sherry Bond, who was attending a WMA meeting in Cody, Wyo. ”Everyone had him on a pedestal. He set the example for all singing cowboys in the movies.”
But Rogers never let fame go to his head, his friends said.
In the early ’80s, Rogers told Goodwin that famed Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach wanted to meet him. Rogers was genuinely amazed that Staubach considered him a hero, Goodwin said.
”Roger Staubach’s father died when he was young,” Goodwin explained. ”Roy Rogers was like a father figure to him. He’d go to the theater and see Roy. He idolized Roy Rogers. He wanted to be like Roy Rogers.
”That shows you what an influence Roy had over so many people over the years – everyone from Gene Autry to the present Riders in the Sky.”
Rogers always had a soft spot for children.
”He was very conscious about never endorsing alcoholic beverages or cigarettes. He’d never put himself in a situation that might put him in a bad light,” Goodwin said.
”Everybody loved Roy Rogers; that was it,” Goodwin added. ”He was a truly bonafide American hero – especially in the movies.”
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Rogers a true ‘Pioneer’ of Western music genre
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When he wasn’t battling villains in his cowboy movies, Roy Rogers often sang about the joys of Western life in tunes that appealed even to people who never dreamed of riding a horse or sleeping under a prairie moon.
”He and Gene Autry were the cowboy sound. They were on the side of angels, Americanism, good wins over evil,” said Ronnie Pugh, a historian with the Country Music Foundation, which runs the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum in Nashville.
Rogers, who died yesterday at age 86, is the only performer inducted twice into the Hall of Fame, once as part of the group ”Sons of the Pioneers” in 1980 and again as a solo artist in 1988.
Glen Campbell, whose song ”Rhinestone Cowboy” celebrated some of the Western themes about which Rogers sang, called him a pioneer who accented the Western in what became country-Western music.
”There was Jimmie Rodgers, and then there were Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. They were the three guys who started it,” Campbell said. Jimmie Rodgers is often called the father of country music.
Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans, recorded more than 400 songs, including ”Happy Trails to You,” which Evans wrote.
Rogers made his first mark as a singer in the mid-’30s, co-founding the Pioneer Trio, soon renamed the Sons of the Pioneers. The group, which has continued to this day with various changes in personnel, was popular on radio, and produced hits including ”Tumbling Tumbleweeds” and ”Cool Water.”
”Tumbling Tumbleweeds” is an ode to the freedom of being a cowboy, ”drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.” In ”Cool Water,” the group sang longingly about desert life: ”All day I’ve faced a barren waste, without the taste of water, cool water.”
Among Rogers’ other songs was ”Hoppy, Gene and Me,” a 1974 tune saluting fellow cowboy icons Autry and Hopalong Cassidy. Another of his standards was ”I’m an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande),” written by Johnny Mercer.
In 1980, Rogers sang ”Ride Concrete Cowboy, Ride” in the Burt Reynolds movie ”Smokey and the Bandit II.”
Rogers’ link to Nashville continued into the 1990s. In 1991, he and a chorus of country stars including Willie Nelson, Randy Travis and Clint Black recorded a nostalgiafilled album, ”Tribute,” singing about prairie nights, grizzled wranglers and playful horses.
”It was like one big family – like the kids coming home for a family reunion,” Rogers said at the time.
Rogers and Black sang together on ”Hold on Partner” on that album and were nominated for ”vocal event of the year” by the Country Music Association.
Rogers also joined Travis on ”Happy Trails” for Travis’ ”Heroes & Friends” album in 1990.
”Roy Rogers is every bit the hero America and the movies made of him,” Black said in a statement yesterday. ”In real life, he stood taller than an icon and reached farther than the stars.”
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Country boy Clinton sings star’s praises
WASHINGTON – President Clinton yesterday praised Western star Roy Rogers, saying his lengthy career reflected true American values.
During an appearance in the White House’s Rose Garden, Clinton said he was saddened by the news of Rogers’ death yesterday at age 86. He said he grew up admiring Rogers, his cowboy exploits and his rags-to-riches success story.
”I really appreciate what he stood for, the movies he made and the kind of values they embodied,” Clinton said. ”Today there will be a lot of sad and grateful Americans, especially of my generation, because of his career.”
He added that he admired the ”good-natured spirit” that Rogers exhibited throughout his lifetime. ”My thoughts are with his family and his many friends,” Clinton said.
Rogers died of congestive heart failure at his home in Apple Valley, Calif., a family spokeswoman said.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Movies include:
Tumbling Tumbleweeds, 1935
The Big Show, 1936
Rhythm on the Range, 1936
Under Western Stars, 1938
Billy the Kid Returns, 1938
The Arizona Kid, 1939
Days of Jesse James, 1939
Dark Command, 1940
The Border Legion, 1940
Robin Hood of the Pecos, 1941
Red River Valley, 1941
Sons of the Pioneers, 1942
Romance on the Range, 1942
King of the Cowboys, 1943
Song of Texas, 1943
The Cowboy and the Senorita, 1944
The Yellow Rose of Texas, 1944
Lake Placid Serenade, 1944
Utah, 1945
Don’t Fence Me In, 1945
My Pal Trigger, 1946
Song of Arizona, 1946
Helldorado 1946
Apache Rose, 1947
Springtime in the Sierras, 1947
Eyes of Texas, 1948
Melody Time, 1948
Grand Canyon Trail, 1949
North of the Great Divide, 1950
Heart of the Rockies, 1951
Son of Paleface, 1952
Alias Jesse James (cameo), 1959
Mackintosh and T.J., 1975
Television:
The Roy Rogers Show, 1951-57
The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show, 1962-63
Recordings include:
Tumbling Tumbleweeds, 1934 (Sons of the Pioneers)
Cool Water, 1936 (Sons of the Pioneers)
A Little White Cross on the Hill, 1947
My Chickashay Gal, 1947
(There’ll Never Be Another) Pecos Bill, 1948
Blue Shadows on the Trail, 1948
Stampede, 1950
Money Can’t Buy Love, 1970
Lovenworth, 1971
Happy Anniversary, 1971
These Are the Good Old Days, 1972
Hoppy, Gene and Me, 1974
Ride, Concrete Cowboy, Ride; 1980 (with Sons of the Pioneers)
Hold on Partner, 1991 (with Clint Black)
(Sons of the Pioneers elected to Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980; Rogers also elected as an individual in 1988)
Businesses:
Roy Rogers restaurants, developed with the Marriott Corp. Sold to Hardee’s in 1990
Television production company
IF YOU WATCH
Turner Classic Movies cable television network Saturday will present a special double feature to honor the late Roy Rogers.
At 8 a.m., the network will show ”Rough Riders’ RoundUp” from 1939, followed an hour later by the 1936 film ”Song of the Saddle.”
TCM is on Cox Communications (formerly TCI of Tucson) Channel 45 and Jones Intercable Channel 48.
SHARE YOUR MEMORIES
”Roy Rogers is riding tonight, returning to our silver screens.
”Comic-book characters never grow old, evergreen heroes whose stories were told.
”Oh, the great sequin cowboy who sings of the plains – of roundups, rustlers and home on the range.
”Turn on the TV, shut out the lights; Roy Rogers is riding tonight.”
- Elton John and Bernie Taupin, ”Roy Rogers” off the ”Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album
Roy Rogers left an indelible imprint on American pop culture, from his early days crooning Western songs on stage with the Sons of the Pioneers, to his flashy Western movies with wife Dale Evans and horse Trigger, to his recordings of Western music and country songs.
The Tucson Citizen would like to hear your favorite memories of Rogers. What did you like about him? What did he mean to you?
We’ll compile the best comments in a story to run early next week.
To share your memories, call 573-4632, fax to 573-4569, e-mail to living@tucsoncitizen.com or write to Roy Rogers Memories, Tucson Citizen Living, P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, Ariz. 85726.
Deadline is Friday.
