Over the course of his acting career, Roy Rogers appeared in close to 200 motion pictures and television programs. The “King of the Cowboys,” as he became known, passed away in 1998 at the age of 86, but his legacy lives on. This is the story of how Roy Rogers met his first wife thanks to his love of lemon cream pie.
Roy Rogers was born Leonard Slye on November 5, 1911, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was brought up on the family farm in Duck Run, Ohio, and showed his love of animals even as a young boy.
With his pet pig Evangeline, Rogers won a 4H competition at a county fair in Scioto, Ohio, when he was 12 years old. He would travel to Columbus, the state capital, and would experience seeing a large metropolis for the first time.
“That was the first time I had ever been ten miles off the farm,” he recalls. “I had never even seen an elevator before. I spent the whole first day just riding up and down the elevator in the Old Neil House Hotel.”
During the height of the Great Depression, Roy Rogers was raised. It was a trying time for millions of Americans, and finding work was challenging. He had aspirations of becoming a doctor or a dentist while he was attending school in McDermott, Ohio. To support his family, he quit school before receiving his diploma to work in a shoe factory.
He was raised with music all the time. He started off playing the mandolin and calling square dances. Then, one scorching July day in 1930, everything would change.
The family spotted an opportunity while traveling to California to see one of Roy’s sisters. Although it didn’t turn out to be the grand American dream the family had hoped it would be, the pleasant weather and the prospect of a better future with more employment convinced his family to relocate to Los Angeles.
Even though it was still difficult to find work, Roy did his fair part by picking fruit and driving a gravel truck to help support the family.
Roy had also picked up the guitar at the time. His main passion, which drove him to sing and perform music for years to come, was to entertain others.
But Roy’s phobia of public speaking prevented him from achieving his goals.
