Dale Evans
Dale Evans (born October 31, 1912 in Uvalde , Texas , † February 7, 2001 in Apple Valley , California ; born Lucille Woods Smith ), the Queen of the West , was an American actress and singer . She achieved her greatest popularity at the side of her husband Roy Rogers in numerous musical westerns and the TV show named after Rogers. Along with Patsy Montana, she is one of the few great female icons of Western music .
According to her birth certificate, Evans was born on October 30, 1912 under the name Lucille Woods Smith in Uvalde, Texas . In contrast, Evans insisted that October 31st be her birthday. Her first name was later changed to Frances Octavia . She grew up in Italy , Texas, an agricultural town south of Dallas , and later moved her family to Memphis , Tennessee .
As time went on, Evans had a talent for singing, and so she began to pursue a career as a singer. In the 1930s she worked on several local radio stations in Memphis, Louisville, Dallas and Chicago . During this time she also adopted her stage name. In 1940 she applied for the first time in Hollywood , which led to contracts with the studios 20th Century Fox (1941) and Republic (1943), where she had first roles in hillbilly films such as Swing Your Partner . In 1943 she finally played alongside John Wayne in a western for the first time , War of the Wildcats .
The big turning point in her life came in 1944 when she got a role alongside Roy Rogers in the musical western The Cowboy and the Senorita . The audience loved this pairing, and 28 more films and numerous TV shows were to follow. Evans, who had not yet given up her dream of a solo career as a pop singer, initially had doubts as to whether she could permanently accept her role as a co-star and in 1945 toyed with the idea of leaving the studio. In the same year the comedic music drama Hitchhike to Happiness, produced with her and Al Pearce of Republic Pictures , was released .
A close relationship also developed privately between colleagues Roy Rogers and Evans. After the death of Roger's first wife Arline in 1946, Evans was his mainstay, and on New Year's Eve 1947 they were married on the set of their film Home in Oklahoma . It was Evans' fourth marriage. Before that she was u. a. married to composer R. Dale Butts . From then on, Rogers and Evans formed the dream couple of the western scene, both on the screen and on television as well as in their numerous public appearances. She wrote the song Happy Trails , which was to become Roger's trademark. In addition, she composed other well-known songs such as Hazy Mountains or My Heart went That-A-Way .
The marriage resulted in a daughter, Robin Elizabeth , who was born with Down syndrome and died shortly before her second birthday. The devout Evans dealt with this stroke of fate in the book Angel Unaware , she also wrote other religious books and songs, such as The Bible tells me so . In addition to Rogers, the couple adopted three children from their first marriage - Cheryl Darlene, Linda Lou and Roy Jr. ("Dusty") - four other children: Mary ("Dodie"), John David ("Sandy"), Marion ("Mimi “) And Deborah Lee. The marriage lasted 51 years until Rogers' death in 1998.
In addition to Patsy Montana, Dale Evans has most fundamentally shaped the image of the singing cowgirl, although, unlike her colleagues like Dorothy Page or Jane Frazee, she never played the leading role in a western. The country band Dixie Chicks , who had cultivated a cowgirl image before their big breakthrough in 1998, named their first album Thank Heavens for Dale Evans (1991) after her.
Dale Evans has received several awards for her services, including a. with a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. She died of heart failure on February 7, 2001 at the age of 89.
Web links
- Dale Evans in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Dale Evans in the catalog of the German National Library
- Dale Evans in the nndb (English)
proof
- ^ Green, Douglas, Singing in the Saddle: The History of the Singing Cowboy , Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8265-1412-X , p. 193.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Evans, Dale |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Smith, Lucille Woods (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer and actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 31, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Uvalde , Texas , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 7, 2001 |
| Place of death | Apple Valley , California , United States |