Roger proposed to Dale Evans at the Chicago Stadium, and soon after, the two got married on New Year’s Eve 1947, at the Flying L. Ranch in Davis, Oklahoma, where they had earlier filmed the movie, ‘Home in Oklahoma’. Roger and Evans didn’t wait too long before giving birth to their first baby girl. They were thrilled when their daughter Robin Elizabeth was born. Their excitement quickly turned into fear when they realized that she was born with down syndrome, which was a much greater risk during the ‘40s, and resulted in her early death due to complications with mumps before reaching her second birthday.
The couple was devastated and mourned her death for a long time. Rogers and Evans subsequently decided to write a book about the loss of their daughter and how she changed their life, even during her short existence. The book was called “Angel Unaware: A Touching Story of Love and Loss”, and became a major influence in the way that parents deal with identifying and raising kids that have special needs.
Roger’s Tragic First Love
Rogers was truly a traditional and loving man. The singer-actor was always searching for the woman he could commit to and marry (despite living in California, which was always identified with a more open romantic lifestyle). While performing in Roswell, New Mexico, Roy received a call from Grace Arlene Wilkins, who promised him that if he sang her "The Swiss Yodel", she would bake him a pie. This cute comment turned into a loving relationship, and the couple got married three years later, in 1936.
Rogers and Arlene adopted their first daughter, Cheryl Darlene. A few years later, Arlene gave birth to their second daughter, Linda Lou, in 1943. She was then pregnant with their third child, a boy named Ray Jr (Dusty), but Arlene did not make the journey with him and unfortunately died during childbirth due to complications, in 1946. Rogers was heartbroken by his wife’s passing, but continued to provide and take care of his children on his own.
The Amazing Dale Evans
Just a few years after the tragic death of Roy Roger’s loving wife, Grace Arline Wilkins. During a regular filming day in his successful acting career, Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy, met the talented and beautiful Dale Evans while they were both on set in a mutual film. Evans was playing a cowgirl at the time, as a co-star to Rogers in the Republic Studio film. Rogers and Evans began dating and quickly found themselves falling in love.
Evans had a tough start in her early life, she spent many years living with her uncle Dr. L.D. Massey, and eloped at age 14 by marrying Thomas F. Fox and having a son with him. She was abandoned a year later by her husband and subsequently found herself pursuing a musical career in Memphis, Tennessee. She then married twice more, but the two marriages also fell apart and ended up in divorce. Although her romantic life was not very successful at the time, everything changed when she met Roy Rogers.
Influencing Generations of Parents
It's been common throughout the '40s and '50s for doctors to advise parents of children with special needs to put them away in foster homes or health institutions. The book "Angel Unaware" was the catalyst for a big change in the 20th century in the way that parents raise children with special needs. The book was written from Robin's point of view in heaven, and detailed just how much the couple did to take care of their daughter.
The story of Robin Elizabeth and her parents was so compelling and inspiring that a training center for children with special needs was named after her mother, Dale Rogers. The center is located in Oklahoma and is named “The Dale Rogers Training Center”. In order to fill the void left after the tragic death of their daughter, Roy and Dale decided to adopt four more children - Mimi, Dodie, Sandy, and Debbie.
More Family Tragedies
The famous couple was lucky to have met each other, but also very unlucky in many events that happened thereafter. It was their immense love for children which made these following loses all the more tragic. When their daughter Debbie was being driven to school on a church bus, she was one of the eight people who died as the bus crashed into seven cars while driving along the highway. This was another one of several distinct and brutally powerful blows to the loving parents.
Private First Classes John David Rogers, also known as Sandy, was one of the couple's adopted children. Another tragedy struck the Rogers when just 15 months after the loss of Debbie — their 18-year-old Sandy, who enlisted in the U.S. Army in late 1964 after receiving consent from his parents due to being a minor, died from choking at a military hospital while being deployed in Germany. He complained about feeling ill at the time and was taken to an army medical bed. A few hours later, he vomited and choked to death in 1965, before even reaching the age of 20.