Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers

The 'King of the Cowboys': singing-cowboy film and television star with his horse Trigger, born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati and raised on a farm at Duck Run in Scioto County.

Born November 5, 1911, Cincinnati (412 Second Street, a tenement later cleared for Riverfront Stadium)
Died July 6, 1998, Apple Valley, San Bernardino County, California

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At a glance

Born: November 5, 1911, Cincinnati (412 Second Street, a tenement later cleared for Riverfront Stadium) (Hamilton County) source
Died: July 6, 1998, Apple Valley, San Bernardino County, California source
Buried: Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Apple Valley source
Also known as: Leonard Franklin Slye, Len Slye, Dick Weston, King of the Cowboys
Known as: Entertainment
Organizations: Republic Pictures

Life story

Leonard Franklin Slye was born in Cincinnati in 1911. The family moved to Portsmouth and then to a farm at Duck Run near Lucasville, where he learned guitar, mandolin and yodeling.

The family moved to California in 1930. He started on radio in 1931 and co-founded the Sons of the Pioneers.

Republic Pictures gave him the name Roy Rogers. He made nearly 90 films and starred in The Roy Rogers Show (1951-57), often with wife Dale Evans, the horse Trigger and the dog Bullet. His theme song was Happy Trails.

He is the only artist inducted twice into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He died in Apple Valley, California, in 1998.

Ohio ties

Cincinnati (412 Second Street) (1911-1912)
birthplace; the family lived in a tenement on Second Street until they left by houseboat in July 1912 Hamilton County · source
Portsmouth (1912-1919)
family lived on its houseboat, which the 1913 flood let them move onto their own land; his father later worked at a Portsmouth shoe factory Scioto County · source
Duck Run, near Lucasville (1919-late 1920s)
boyhood farm home, now marked by Ohio historical marker 4-73 on Roy Rogers Road Scioto County · source
McDermott (1920s)
attended high school for two years Scioto County · source
Cincinnati (Spring Grove Avenue) (1928-1930)
worked with his father at a U.S. Shoe factory after leaving school Hamilton County · source
Lucasville (Scioto County Fair) (1959)
returned to the county fair and was photographed with Duck Run schoolmates and his old 4-H club Scioto County · source
Portsmouth (1984-present)
annual Roy Rogers Festival; floodwall mural and Wall of Fame honoree Scioto County · source

Timeline

1911 Born Leonard Franklin Slye on November 5 at 412 Second Street, Cincinnati, to Andrew and Mattie Slye. source
1912 In July the family travelled up the Ohio River to Portsmouth in a 12-by-50-foot houseboat that his father and uncle built from salvage lumber. source
1913 The Great Flood of 1913 let the family float the houseboat onto land they had bought in Portsmouth, and they kept living in it on dry ground. source
1919 The Slyes bought a farm at Duck Run, about 12 miles north of Portsmouth near Lucasville, and built a six-room house; Len was eight. source
1928 Left high school and returned to Cincinnati to work with his father at a U.S. Shoe factory on Spring Grove Avenue. source
1930 He and his father drove the family to California, where he worked as a truck driver and fruit picker. source
1931 Sang and yodelled on the Midnight Frolic radio program in Inglewood and joined the Rocky Mountaineers in August. source
1934 His group, renamed the Sons of the Pioneers, made its first Decca recordings on August 8, including Tumbling Tumbleweeds. source
1937 A Republic Pictures screen test led to a contract and a new name, Roy Rogers. source
1938 Under Western Stars, his first starring film, was released on April 20 after Gene Autry went on strike against Republic. source
1943 Became the top money-making western star in the Motion Picture Herald poll, a ranking he held every year until the poll ended in 1954. source
1951 The Roy Rogers Show began on television; he made more than 100 episodes through 1957. source
1958 On April 22 a radio drama, 'Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys', aired in the Once Upon a Time in Ohio series produced by WOSU and the Ohio Historical Society. source
1959 Appeared at the Scioto County Fair in Lucasville with Duck Run schoolmates and members of the West Side Pioneers 4-H Club he had belonged to. source
1960 Received three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, for motion pictures, radio and television. source
1980 Elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame with the original Sons of the Pioneers, and again as a solo artist in 1988, the only person elected twice. source
1984 The first Roy Rogers Festival was held in Portsmouth; the 38th ran in August 2021. source
1988 Made his last visit to Cincinnati for the city's bicentennial 'Salute to Our Stars' at the downtown convention center. source
1998 Died July 6 in Apple Valley, California, and was buried at Sunset Hills Memorial Park. source
2002 Riverfront Stadium, built over the site of his birthplace, was imploded on December 29. source
2018 State Route 348 in Scioto County, between SR 104 and SR 73, became the Roy Rogers Happy Trails Highway on March 23 (Ohio Revised Code 5534.95). source

What Roy is known for

Singing-cowboy film and television star
Nearly 90 films
The Roy Rogers Show, 1951-57
Happy Trails

Stories

A houseboat, a flood and a farm

In 1912 Andy Slye, tired of his job and of city life, built a 12-by-50-foot houseboat from salvage lumber with his brother Will, and in July the family floated up the Ohio River from Cincinnati toward Portsmouth. They bought land there to build a house, but the Great Flood of 1913 solved the problem for them: the water let them move the houseboat onto their lot, and they kept living in it on dry land. In 1919 they bought a farm at Duck Run, about 12 miles north near Lucasville, and built a six-room house. Andy took a job at a Portsmouth shoe factory and came home on weekends; one payday gift was a horse, on which Len learned to ride. With no radio, the family held Saturday square dances where Len sang, played mandolin and called the dances, and he and his mother used different yodels to call to each other across the farm.

Source

Back at the Scioto County Fair

In 1959, at the height of his television fame, Roy Rogers came to the Scioto County Fair at Lucasville. A newspaper clipping now held in the Scioto County Public Library's local history collection shows him with his old Duck Run schoolmates and with members of the West Side Pioneers 4-H Club, which he had belonged to as a boy. Also pictured are his former teacher and 4-H advisor Guy Bumgarner and S. C. Peebles. The library also holds a 1920s photograph of Duck Run schoolboys in which Leonard Slye stands beside Charles Hiles in the back row.

Source

Second base

Rogers was born at 412 Second Street, in a tenement near the Cincinnati riverfront, to Andrew and Mattie Slye. In the 1960s the building was demolished to make way for Riverfront Stadium, and Rogers liked to joke that he claimed second base as his birthplace. When he was seven the family settled at Duck Run, north of Portsmouth, where he learned to yodel and call square dances; in 1928 he came back to Cincinnati to work beside his father at a U.S. Shoe factory on Spring Grove Avenue. He returned for the last time in 1988 for the city's bicentennial 'Salute to Our Stars' at the downtown convention center. At a 1992 press tour he told television critics that his mother never could call him Roy; to her he was always Leonard.

Source

A highway home

On July 24, 2017, Representative Johnson introduced House Bill 311 to name State Route 348 in Scioto County, between State Routes 104 and 73, the Roy Rogers Happy Trails Highway, and to let the Director of Transportation put up signs. The Legislative Service Commission's analysis noted that Rogers was born Leonard Franklin Slye in Cincinnati on November 5, 1911, spent much of his early life in Portsmouth and Lucasville, and appeared in more than 100 films and many radio and television shows. The House Transportation and Public Safety Committee reported the bill on September 21, 2017, and the House passed it 91 to 3 on October 11, 2017, with more than two dozen co-sponsors from both parties.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Country Music Hall of Fame (twice)

Named for Roy Rogers

Roy Rogers Happy Trails Highway (State Route 348 between SR 104 and SR 73) (Scioto County, Scioto County) source
Roy Rogers Road, Duck Run (near Lucasville, Scioto County) source
Roy Rogers Festival (annual since 1984) (Portsmouth, Scioto County) source

Family

wife: Dale Evans
wife: Lucile Ascolese
wife: Grace Arline Wilkins

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Boyhood Home of Roy Rogers, Ohio historical marker 4-73 (off Duck Run on Roy Rogers Road)
Duck Run, near Lucasville (Portsmouth 45662 address) Scioto County · source
Roy Rogers boyhood farmhouse at Duck Run (private)
Roy Rogers Road, Duck Run, near Lucasville Scioto County · source
2 Site of birthplace at 412 Second Street (later Riverfront Stadium; coordinates are the stadium's) (demolished)
Cincinnati riverfront Hamilton County · source
3 Portsmouth Floodwall Murals (Roy Rogers on Trigger) and Wall of Fame star, Front Street
Portsmouth Scioto County · source
Roy Rogers grave, Sunset Hills Memorial Park
Apple Valley, California source

Ohio places

Where Roy Rogers was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Cincinnati, Hamilton County ZIP 45202 · Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Lived: Duck Run, near Lucasville, Scioto County ZIP 45648 · Scioto County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Roy Rogers, and what the record shows.

Often said Roy Rogers was born at second base of Riverfront Stadium.

The record It was his own joke. He was born in 1911 in a tenement at 412 Second Street; the building was demolished in the 1960s and Riverfront Stadium opened on the cleared land in 1970. No source places the house at a particular spot on the field, and the stadium itself was imploded in 2002. source

Often said Duck Run, his boyhood home, is in Adams County.

The record WVXU's 2018 article says Adams County, but Ohio historical marker 4-73, which stands at the farm off Duck Run on Roy Rogers Road (a Portsmouth mailing address), is listed in Scioto County. source

Often said Roy Rogers owned or ran the Roy Rogers restaurant chain.

The record In 1968 he licensed his name to the Marriott Corporation, which turned its Hot Shoppes into Roy Rogers Restaurants; otherwise he had no involvement with the chain. source

Duck Run is called his birthplace in one local history; Wikipedia says Cincinnati.

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Ohio Legislative Service Commission bill analysis, H.B. 311 (132nd General Assembly), as passed by the House: Roy Rogers Happy Trails Highway 2017, Ohio Legislative Service Commission
Ohio Revised Code section 5534.95, Roy Rogers Happy Trails Highway (effective March 23, 2018) 2018, State of Ohio
Finding aid, MS 84 Once Upon a Time in Ohio radio scripts, listing 'Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys' (April 22, 1958; Box 10, Folder 412) 1958, Bowling Green State University, Center for Archival Collections
Newspaper clipping: Roy Rogers at the 1959 Scioto County Fair with Duck Run schoolmates and his 4-H club (rights: Scioto County Fair Board) 1959, Scioto County Public Library
Photograph: 'Duck Run Long Ago', schoolboys including Leonard Slye, 1920s (rights: Scioto County Public Library) 1920s, Scioto County Public Library

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

"Uncle Bob" Lynn, WCKT's in-studio host of Roy Rogers films billed as "The Major".
CC0
Public domain
L. to R.: Grant Withers, Dale Evans, Stuart Randall & Roy Rogers in Bells of Coronado - publicity still
Public domain
Poster for the 1945 film The Bells of Rosarita/ The item has no copyright markings on it as can be seen in the...
Public domain
Lynne Roberts and Roy Rogers in Billy the Kid Returns (1938) - publicity still
Public domain
State Theatre advertisement for the American western film Colorado (1940) 10 Oct. 1940 Morning Call, Allentown...
Public domain
Cameo Theater advertisement for the American western film Come On, Rangers (1938) and the pre-Code mystery fil...
Public domain
Poster for the American western film Come On, Rangers (1938). There are no copyright marks. At bottom is Count...
Public domain
Dale Evans and Roy Rogers, 1953
Public domain
Left to right: Roy Rogers, Bud Osborne, and Lynne Roberts (aka Mary Hart) in Frontier Pony Express (1939) - lo...
Public domain
George 'Gabby' Hayes and Roy Rogers in The Carson City Kid (1940)
Public domain
Poster for the 1948 film Grand Canyon Trail. At lower left is Country of origin USA-at lower right is 1946-142...
Public domain