Country Artist brought to you courtesy of Coral Casino and sports book
Roy Rogers
Born in Cincinnati in 1911 with the real name of Leonard Slye. he was raised on a farm in Duck run near Portsmouth, Southern Ohio.
He loved to ride horses and play the guitar he also loved to watch Tom Mix movies in fact he loved any cowboy movie. During the late 1920's he learned cowboy music and became a caller at the local square dances.
1930 saw him hitching his way to California where he became a peach picker in Tulare, however it wasn't long before he was working has a musician with a quintet called the Rocky Mountaineers. During this time he actually played with anyone who would let him and these bands included Uncle Tom Murray's Hollywood Hillbillies. the O Bar O Cowboys and the Texas Outlaws. In 1934 he established the Pioneer Trio with Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer later they were to call themselves the sons of the poineers when the Farr Brothers Hugh and Karl Joined the band.
The sons of the pioneers brought together several styles of music into what we call today as cowboy music. Theses styles included old trail songs and brand new Hollywood melodies, they played in lots of movies including Gene Autry's. It was while playing in Los Angeles that they heard Gene Autry had left Republic Pictures and Slye auditioned for the role he initially changed his name to Dick Weston and then finally to Roy Rogers his first film was Under Western Skies in 1938.
By 1955 Roy Rogers the King of the Cowboys as he became known starred in 88 films and the sons of the poineers were often there to co star with him. In 35 of his movies his co star was Dale Evans who became his wife in 1947 after his first wife died. They eventually moved into television where they made 101 episodes. Their theme song was 'Happy Trails to You'.
Roy Rogers was a committed Christian and recorded some gospel albums.
Roy Rogers died on the 6 July 1998 - visit the Roy Rogers Website