Roy Rogers made fostering, adopting and caring for children a huge part of his life.
The King of the Cowboys had four biological children, adopted four more and fostered dozens of other kids throughout his life. Rogers married a few times, including to Grace Arline Wilkins in 1936, with whom he welcomed three children.
In 1947, The Roy Rogers Show star wed his frequent costar and collaborator, Dale Evans, who had a son from a previous marriage. Rogers and Evans were married for over 50 years until his death on July 6, 1998. The couple, considered icons of the country-western genre, welcomed and adopted five children together: Robin, Dodie, Sandy, Mimi and Debbie.
Known for their compassion and acceptance of all kids — their own and others — Rogers and Evans set an example of helping the youth and always being kind.
“We learned from watching Mom and Dad. We were with them a lot — we were on the road with them during the summer — and all you had to do was watch those two, and see how they handled people, how they were around children and animals,” Dusty told Cowboys & Indians magazine in July 2024. “Then, you just gleaned it from them [and thought], ‘Well, that’s the person I want to be.’ ”
Here’s everything to know about Roy Rogers’ children.
Cheryl Rogers-Barnett
Rogers and Wilkins adopted their first child, their daughter Cheryl, in 1940.
After experiencing multiple miscarriages, Rogers visited the children’s home Hope Cottage while touring in Dallas. There, he met Cheryl, who was a few months old.
“Dad said that when he wiggled his fingers in front of all of the babies’ faces that they all cried or screamed, and I just reached up and grasped a hold of his finger,” Cheryl told Utah Public Radio in April 2014. “He called mommy in California and said, ‘I found our baby.’ ”
By the time she was 6 months old, Rogers and Wilkins had brought Cheryl back to live with them in California.
Wilkins was often sick during the first few years of Cheryl’s life, so Rogers would take Cheryl to work with him, she told Utah Public Radio. “I grew up on the Republic lot. The ladies and gentlemen in the wardrobe and make-up department and hair department, they were my baby sitters,” Cheryl said. “That was incredible for a little girl to be able to go do that.”
On her personal blog, Cheryl shared that — like the majority of Rogers’ children — she made her on-screen debut as a child alongside her father. She appeared as a toddler in the 1941 documentary short, Meet Roy Rogers, and had lines at 10 years old in Trail of Robin Hood, and as a teenager in Outlaws of Paradise Valley and The Roy Rogers Show.
Cheryl married her husband, Larry Barnett, and like her father, they shared several children and grandchildren. Cheryl and Larry also co-produced two documentaries, Roy Rogers: In His Own Words and Dale Evans: A Most Remarkable Woman.
In addition, she’s authored three books: her memoir Cowboy Princess a second edition, Cowboy Princess Rides Again and The All-American Cowboy Grill cookbook.
Linda Lou Rogers
Rogers and Wilkins welcomed their second child, daughter Linda Lou, in 1943.
After several miscarriages and Wilkins’ ongoing ill health, Linda Lou was the couple’s first biological child.
Linda Lou has lived a largely private life, only appearing in one 1953 episode of This Is Your Life, alongside her siblings: Dusty, Cheryl, Dodie and Sandy. She now lives in Tennessee, her sister Dodie said in a May 2022 interview with the Choctaw Nation.
Roy “Dusty” Rogers Jr.
Rogers and Wilkins welcomed their third child, son Roy Jr. (a.k.a. “Dusty”), in 1946.
Wilkins experienced health complications from the birth and died within a week, per the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum website. The following year, Rogers married Evans, who became a mother to his three young children: Cheryl, Linda Lou and Dusty.
Dusty is the only one of his siblings to follow in his father’s musical footsteps. As a child, Dusty appeared on The Roy Rogers Show alongside his parents and performed with them onstage while they toured rodeos and state fairs, according to a bio.
In adulthood, Dusty moved to Ohio and began a career as a contractor, only to fall back into music in the 1970s, per an interview with Across the Street. He performed with other groups before forming his own, Roy Rogers Jr. and The High Riders, in 1982.
In 1989, Dusty became his father’s manager and later served as the president of the now-closed Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum. Ever since, Dusty has been working to carry on his father’s legacy through music and philanthropy. He is a trustee of the Roy and Dale Evans Rogers Children’s Trust and helps manage the Roy Rogers Family Entertainment Corporation, per his website.
“I know when it comes to the family legacy, the buck stops with me, and my goal is not to walk in my father’s shadow, but lengthen it,” Dusty told Across the Street in September 2024.
In January 2018, Dusty became a permanent member of the band that his father founded eight decades before, the Sons of the Pioneers, per the Victorville Daily Press.
“Generation after generation has just loved this music and we’ve been very true to what the Pioneers started so many years ago,” he told the outlet. “There’s an awful lot of history there that we want to keep alive.”
Robin Rogers
Rogers and his second wife, Evans, welcomed their daughter Robin in 1950, according to Cowboys & Indians magazine.
Robin, who had Down Syndrome and died before her second birthday, was the couple’s only biological child together, per the Hope Cottage website.
Despite the public perception of Down Syndrome at the time, Rogers and Evans were proud of their daughter, declining to hide her from the public eye and sharing many photos with her.
In an interview with Utah Public Radio in 2014, Cheryl explained that her parents “refused to hospitalize Robin. They brought her home,” and intended to raise her alongside their other children.
Sadly, just before her second birthday, Robin contracted mumps and died of complications from the illness. Her death led Evans to write her book, Angel Unaware, written from the perspective of Robin — which reached millions of readers, helped shift perspectives on Down Syndrome and promoted acceptance.
Dodie Rogers
Rogers and Evans adopted their second daughter together, Mary Little Doe (whom they called “Dodie”), in 1952, per the Choctaw Nation website.
Dodie was four weeks old when Evans spotted her while visiting Hope Cottage — the same children’s home where Cheryl was adopted years before — to inquire about Cheryl’s birth parents, Dodie told the website in 2022. Evans immediately fell in love with Dodie, but it wasn’t until Robin’s death a few months later that the couple returned to adopt her.
By then, Dodie — who is Choctaw — was 7 months old. Hope Cottage had been looking for a family with Native American heritage to adopt her, and accepted the application of Rogers, who had Choctaw heritage on his mother’s side.
“[I feel] very blessed. It’s just remarkable that everything turned out that way in that time. It’s beyond coincidental,” Dodie told the Choctaw Nation website of her adoption. “It’s hard to say it was meant to be, but I believe it was something that God put there.”
Rogers and Evans gave Dodie the legal name Mary Little Doe upon her adoption, which gradually shortened to Doe and Dodie, she explained to the outlet. “It just stuck. I’ve gone by Dodie ever since, even though it’s on legal paperwork, but everyone knows me as Dodie,” she added.
Dodie met her husband Jon Patterson, a NASA engineer, in 1999. The couple moved from California to Alabama. Today, the pair are parents to three kids and grandparents to several grandchildren.
Sandy Rogers
Rogers and Evans adopted their third child, son Sandy, around 1952.
Wherever they performed, Rogers and Evans often visited children’s hospitals, and they met John David — whom they called Sandy — while visiting Kentucky on their way back from New York, according to Hope Cottage (the same children’s home where they adopted Cheryl and Dodie).
Four-year-old Sandy was in the hospital after being found beaten and abandoned in a motel room at six weeks old. He had been left alone for 3 or 4 days before receiving help, which left him with malnutrition and rickets. Rogers and Evans immediately completed paperwork to adopt Sandy.
In 1965, Sandy died while serving in the Army in Germany at only 18 years old, newspapers reported at the time. Afterward, Evans wrote the book Salute to Sandy in honor of his memory, per The New York Times.
Mimi Rogers
Rogers and Evans adopted their fourth child, daughter Marion (whom they called “Mimi”), from Scotland in 1954.
Born in 1940 in Edinburgh during World War II, Mimi spent her childhood in orphanages. She was 13 years old when she met Rogers and Evans, who were visiting her children’s home while on a European tour.
During their stop, Mimi performed a song, “Won’t You Buy My Pretty Flowers?” for the couple, and Rogers and Evans were left in awe, per the BBC. The couple invited Mimi to have lunch with them and watch a performance of their show. Afterwards, Evans asked Mimi to return to California with them.
“What are the chances that they would want me to be part of that family?” Mimi told the BBC in December 2019. “I was not a cute little five or six year old, I was 13. I figured it wasn’t going to happen.”
That year, Mimi came to America on a student visa and spent Christmas with Rogers, Evans and their children. They legally adopted her the following year, and she didn’t return to Scotland until she was an adult. “I felt like I was home,” Mimi told the outlet.
Mimi married her high school sweetheart at 17. Her husband, Dan, with whom she had three children, joined the Marine Corps, and they were stationed across the country. Her husband died when their kids were young, but Mimi went on to welcome multiple grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Before she died in 2021, Mimi was an active board member of her parents’ foundation, Happy Trails Foundation, attending every meeting and banquet, per the Victorville Daily Press. She also participated in a variety of events and dedications to represent her family.
“I consider her the very best of humankind. She was always fair and honest and never complained,” Dodie told the Victorville Daily Press of her sister. “She may not have been tall, but her heart was gigantic.”
Debbie Rogers
Rogers and Evans adopted their fifth child, daughter Debbie, in 1956.
Debbie was born in Korea and was later adopted by Rogers and Evans when she was 4. She lived with the family for nearly a decade before she was killed at age 12 in a bus accident in 1964..
While coming back from a month-long church aid trip to Tijuana, Mexico, to help an orphanage, the bus — carrying 40 children and two adults — lost control and crashed into seven vehicles on a highway near San Clemente, Calif., per The New York Times.
Twelve-year-old Debbie was standing at the front of the bus with a few other children at the time of the accident, according to witness reports.
After learning about the crash, Evans told The New York Times, “I’ve heard it, but I can’t accept it.” At the time, Rogers was in the hospital recovering from neck surgery.
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