Dale Evans (October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001) was an American writer, film star and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers. 　　Born in Uvalde, Texas, she had a tumultuous early life. She was born in 1912 to T. Hillman Smith and Bettie Sue Wood, and was named Lucille Wood Smith at birth; the name was changed to Frances Octavia Smith while she was still an infant. 　　At age 14, she eloped with her first husband, Thomas F. Fox, with whom she had one son, Thomas F. Fox, Jr., when she was 15. A year later, abandoned by the father, she found herself in Memphis, Tennessee, a single parent, pursuing a career in music. She landed a job with local radio stations (WMC and WREC), singing and playing piano. Divorced in 1929, she took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930s to promote her singing career. 　　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. 　　Throughout this early period, Evans went through two additional failed marriages, the first of which was to August Wayne Johns from 1929 to 1935. In 1937, she married her third husband, accompanist and arranger Robert Dale Butts; they divorced nine years later. Neither of these marriages produced any children. During her time at 20th Century Fox, the studio promoted her as the unmarried supporter of her teenage "brother" Tommy (actually her son Tom Fox, Jr.). This deception continued through her divorce from Butts in 1946 and her development as a cowgirl co-star to Roy Rogers at Republic Studios.