Dale Evans Rogers (born Frances Octavia Smith; October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001) was an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.
Evans was born Frances Octavia Smith on October 31, 1912, in Uvalde, Texas, to Bettie Sue Wood and T. Hillman Smith.[a] She had a tumultuous early life. She spent a lot of time living with her uncle, Dr. L.D. Massey MD FACP, an internal medicine physician, in Osceola, Arkansas. At age 14, she eloped with and married Thomas F. Fox, with whom she had one son, Thomas F. Fox Jr., when she was 15. A year later, abandoned by her husband, she found herself in Memphis, Tennessee, a single parent pursuing a career in music. She landed jobs with Memphis radio stations (WMC and WREC), singing and playing piano. Divorced in 1929, she took the name Dale Evans while working at radio station WHAS (Louisville, Kentucky) in the early 1930s after the station manager suggested it because he believed she could promote her singing career with a short pleasant sounding name that announcers and disc jockeys could easily pronounce.
After beginning her career singing at the radio station where she was employed as a secretary, Evans had a productive career as a jazz, swing, and big band singer that led to a screen test and contract with 20th Century Fox studios. She gained exposure on radio as the featured singer for a time on the Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy show.

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