By Claire Novak
The year was 1943. The man was a living legend, the “King of the Cowboys,” voted one of America’s greatest heroes along iwht Washington, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. He had his own radio program, his own fan club, and hundreds of products named after or endorsed by him. He had more influence on kids who grew up in the 40s and 50s than any other individual, and he lived up to the responsibility. He never drank or swore and he always treated ladies with respect. He urged his “Riders Club” members to love God, be courteous and polite, and always obey their parents. He led by example and taught kids to stand up for what was right. Even in the innocent days of the 1940s, Roy Rogers was certainly not your average celebrity.
Roy “Dusty” Rogers Jr. is not your average celebrity either. He’s easily accessible and fan-friendly, he’s been married to the same wife for over thirty years and his kids are all well-adjusted adults with families of their own. Other things about him stand out—like his strong love for his family, or the calm focus that he shows when he’s under pressure. Then there’s his unwavering trust in the Lord, a trust that has carried him through many trials and heartaches.
Like his father, Dusty believes in good old-fashioned values, and he’s not afraid to share those values, and he’s not afraid to share those values with the people he meets—and unlike many modern entertainers, he’s not motivated by money or success. Instead, he wants to continue what his father started, preserving the good morals and beliefs that are so hard to find in today’s society. According to Dusty, his reward doesn’t have to come from anyone on earth. He says, “I just hope that when this life of mine is over, the good Lord looks at me and says, Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
Riding a New Trail
In 1994, Dusty Rogers became the president and executive director of the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum, founded by his parents in 1967. The museum saw success in Victorville, California while Roy and Dale were alive, but declining tourism brought hard times. When Roy and Dale passed away, the Rogers family was left with a struggling business and overwhelming inheritance taxes; including $220,000 for the mounted figure of Trigger alone.
“We had tow options with Mom and Dad gone,” Dusty recalls. “One would be to close the museum down, put everything up for auction and sell it to the highest bidder, but what is that? We owe them so much as parents—not only because they were Roy and Dale—but also as parents. We had to try to continue on with something that they started—their legacy. The left it to us.”
To keep the museum open, the family moved into a new building in Branson, Missouri, facing three years of hard work and some major setbacks. In 2002 construction was slowed by a harsh winter; then spring tornado damage postponed the grand opening. Dusty and his family moved their own household from Victorville to Branson while moving the contents of the entire museum at the same time—but Dusty’s wife Linda said the move was worth all the difficulty.
“We had hue amounts to move,” Linda said, “but we were so excited about the possibilities of this. My husband finally gets to continue the dreams of his mom and dad and fulfill his own dreams.”
The new museum offers many interactive elements, including a laser shooting gallery, a movie theatre featuring Roy and Dale’s films, and The Happy Trails Theatre, where Dusty performs with his band, The HighRiders. Their show introduces the audience to the early cowboy culture with songs like “The Streets of Laredo,” and there’s plenty of time for Roy Rogers fans to reminisce as songs like “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” and “Cool Water,” are sung. Finally, Dusty introduces modern songs that honor today’s cowboy, such as “Born to be a Cowboy” and “Wayfaring Stranger.”
“People say, Well don’t you think that Roy and Dale’s fans are getting older, do you think there’s gonna be that much recognitions?” Dusty says, “but I don’t think that morals, standards, the Good Lord, apple pie, and America gets old! I think a lot of people are trying to get back to something that’s a little kinder, a little gentler and a little more straightforward. So I don’t see their legacy drying out. I think there will always be room for good entertainment, good people. And pushing forward a good image.”
Raising Tomorrow’s Leaders
There seems to be a significant generation gap between old Roy Roger’s fans (generally seniors who grew up watching Roy’s shows) and new Roy Rogers’ fans (young adults and children). But Dusty understands young people and is optimistic about reaching them with his show. “I think that young people today want somebody who will talk with them, not at them. Kids grow up so fast today. You know, older folks like me,” he laughs, “we get kinda set in our ways and sometimes forget that we were young once, too, and very impressionable. I think we need to give young people a little more credit!”
Dusty doesn’t see kids as “a bunch of mindless video-game junkies.” He believes that every young person is important to God. “The kids that I’ve talked to…have some initiative, have intelligence, have brains, want to go from one place to the next,” Dusty says. “I push three things in my shows: you need to talk to your kids, god doesn’t make junk and you need to really give them quality time.”
It doesn’t end there. Dusty also believes that children need to connect with their grandparents. “You need to talk to your grandparents,” he says. “They’ve been there, done that. Kids can learn from them—and that opens the wonderful channel of communication that we all lack. [As parents] we don’t keep those channels of communication open with our kids. Then you start thinking What are they doing? And the kids start thinking. What kind of an idiot is my father? Of course, then when they reach 24 or 25, they find out, Man, my dad learned a lot in the last ten years!”
Dusty’s love for his father comes out clearly in the moving tribute that he wrote for Roy, “King of the Cowboys.” The song paints a picture of a man who loved his God, his family and his country—a man who will always be remembered for his gentle nature and upright standards.
“Roy and Dale lived their lives offstage the same way they did onstage,” Dusty says. “When they said something, people could believe what they said and genuinely believe they were good people. They were always very straightforward. I think people kind of gravitate toward honesty and a genuineness that we don’t see in a lot of people today. I think that’s what most people liked about them; that they could always rely on Mom and Dad to have a positive influence on their lives.”
Back at the Ranch
Roy and Dale’s influence extended to millions of American kids, but it was felt the strongest right at home. “You know, we got discipline from them,” Dusty recalls, “Because there were nine kids and you have to have an orderly house!” Although their disciplinary measures were usually more traditional, Roy and Dale sometimes resorted to unusual methods to keep their kids in line. Once Dale used her six-shooter and blanks because yelling failed to catch the kids’ attention. Another time, Roy and the sheriff threatened to send the boys to jail, where, according to Roy, they would live on bread and water for the rest of [their] natural days! Sometimes the kids would push the limit, but as Dusty’s younger brother Sandy found out, his parents always kept their word, even when it included dumping an entire pitcher of milk over Sandy’s head.
While those incidents bring laughter today, Dusty vividly remembers the lessons his parents taught. “I learned from [Roy and Dale] that you have to have some order in your life, and that being fair, honest, and straightforward with people is not something that you should take lightly…that you should really try to do the best you can with whatever you have…whatever God gave you, try to do the best you can with that. And they gave us a confidence—not an arrogance, but a confidence—that what you do should be good enough for you, and you don’t have to knock yourself out to try to please everybody else, just do the best you can with what you got and the Good Lord will take care of the rest.”
“Do With Me What You Want”
Roy and Dale gave the best to their kids—discipline, love for family, good work ethics, and strong morals—but better than all that was their strong Christian faith, which offered a rock of comfort in the stormy seas of life.
“Mom had the best knowledge of Scripture of anybody I’ve ever know,” Dusty remembers. “She could quote it to you: she knew the Bible inside and out. If I came to a situation in life I didn’t quite know how to handle, I’d say, Mom, I need some Scripture, give me something for this, and she’d go, …okay, that’s First Corinthians 4:19….and she would quote it to me. Now, my mom was never one to preach. She’d talk about the Good Lord and what Jesus meant in her life, but she never preached down to you. I think she won more souls over that way than bein’ a hell-bent-for-leather or fire and brimstone preacher.”
When the family decided to move the museum from Victorville, Dusty wondered if they were doing the right thing. “When Mom and Dad were here it was no big deal. I could always run everything past them,” he says. “Now they’re gone and I’m stuck with, Okay, now what’re you gonna do, Bud, there ain’t nobody to give you the answers.”
Even though his earthly parents are gone, Dusty still has someone to guide him—his Heavenly Father. Although Dusty received Christ as his Savior when he was fourteen, he wasn’t very close to the Lord. When he was sixteen, a friend’s father committed suicide on the Rogers’ ranch. They found the decomposing body in a car out in the woods and the terrible sight became imbedded in his mind. Frightful dreams plagued his sleep and he lost his appetite. He knew that he needed the Lord’s help to overcome the problem. “At that point I rededicated my life,” Dusty says. “I said, I don’t need this outside stuff, Lord. Lock me in, and do with me what You want. It’s been that way ever since.”
Dusty faces everyone he meets with the same grace and courtesy that was personified by his father. It’s hard to keep that attitude in the tough world of entertainment, and it’s hard to push against the crowd and stand for morals in an industry that seems to thrive on corruption.
“I wear my heart on my sleeve, and that’s gotten me burned a few times.” Dusty says, “but I’m a real believer in do unto others, because that’s what the Good Lord said to do. It’s kinda backfired on me a few times because I trust people too much. The cowboy philosophy on that is trust your friends and keep your gun oiled, but that’s not the Christian way of doing things. It hasn’t been easy, but I try to listen to other people and give them the befit of the doubt, and try to live my life the way I feel the good Lord would want me to—to be fair to people. Like I say in the song, “I’ve won my share and I’ve fought fair, just like Roy would do.”
“Just like Dad”
Remembering his father, Dusty says, “People say, What was it like growing up to be Roy’s son? It must have been awful, standing in his shadow. I say, No, because Roy was Roy, and I’m me, and we’re two different people. He cast a huge shadow in the world and that’s fine, but my job now—out of respect to him—is not to stand in his shadow, but to try and lengthen it by doin’ what he would want me to do. And that’s the best and the most respect I can give a father, to be like him.”
When asked how he wants to be remembered by future generations, Dusty’s response is instantaneous. “What I want them to say is, Man, he’s just like his old man, he’s just like his dad. That’s all I need to hear. That would be enough. People say, Oh, you don’t sound like your dad, or you don’t look like your dad, but man, you’re an awful lot like him in a lot of ways. And I say, Thank you! That’s all I care about. I don’t need to look like him, sound like him, walk or talk like him. All I need to hear at the end of my life is, job well done, and, you were just like your father. That’s the greatest thing that could happen to me, and that’s the way I’d like to be remembered.”
Claire Novak is a freelance writer and journalist. Her articles have appeared in a variety of publications, including The Girlhood Home Companion, The Pebbly Brook Farm Journal, and The Camp Chase Gazette. She also performs living history interpretations, teaches piano, and works at Cowboy Dreams, a Therapeutic Riding Center for children with Special Needs. Claire plays an active role in her family’s ministry, The Gift of Family Writing. Visit her website at www.giftoffamilywriting.com.
And also a special thanks to Mike Myers, contributing editor.
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