My family owns (basically worthless) land in the high desert near Victorville, CA, so I have been to the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum out there. My grandfather was a cowboy and Western buff, and he took me to meet Roy when I was a wee lad - I have had a soft spot for the King of the Cowboys ever since.

I don't remember a whole lot about the museum - it's been a while - except for good ol' Trigger, stuffed, awaiting a mount that will never come, right there in the lobby. Pretty creepy, actually.

Anyway, the Roy and Dale Museum is moving to middle-America's entertainment mecca, Branson, MO:

The museum, which closed its doors Sunday, hopes to open in Branson for the Memorial Day weekend.

Rogers - known to Western movie fans as the "King of the Cowboys" - died in 1998 at age 86. Evans, who wrote the couple's theme song, "Happy Trails to You," died in 2001 at 88.

"We've been here 36 years in the high desert, so it's a little bit rough," said son Dusty Rogers.

He added: "We took mom to Branson about six years ago and she just loved it. Basically we're fulfilling what she wanted to do." [AP]

Roy was something, as his bio attests:

Even though he was the 'King of the Cowboys,' Roy never forgot his humble beginnings in Duck Run, Ohio, as Leonard Slye. A farm boy, active in 4-H, he originally wanted to be a Dentist or Physician, so he could help people and "fix" their physical problems. But that was not meant to be. He dropped out of high school after two years, to go to work in a shoe factory beside his dad, to help bolster the family income.

The family made a trip to California in 1930 to visit Roy's older sister. After returning to Ohio, he got to the point where he couldn't stand the inside of the shoe factory so he returned to California and took jobs driving dump trucks and picking peaches. The one bright spot in his life was always music. Roy had an excellent singing voice and his films featured some of the most popular songs of all time and his movies only made them more popular.

He began singing with various country and western groups, eventually forming the Pioneer Trio with Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer. They developed a unique style of close harmony with a distinctive sound and soon became very popular on the radio and in concerts in Southern California. With the addition of fiddle player Hugh Farr, they became known as the Sons of the Pioneers, when a radio announcer thought they looked too young to be Pioneers.

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