entertainers – Page 10 – Texas History Notebook

Dale Evans, born in Uvalde

daleevans_gettyimages

(Image credit: gettyimages.com, showing Dale Evans between the actor Jimmy Stewart and Dale’s husband Roy Rogers.)

Dale Evans was born Lucile Smith (later changed to Frances Octavia Smith) on October 31, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas to Walter Hillman Smith and Bettie Sue Coln, according to published genealogy records. The family later moved to Osceola, Arkansas where she attended high school. When she was 14, she eloped and married Thomas Frederick Fox with whom she had her first born son, Tom Fox, Jr. The marriage ended shortly thereafter and two years later, she married August W. Johns. In 1936, she married Robert Dale Butts, which relationship lasted about nine years. She had no children from the latter two marriages. In her early years, she struggled as a single parent and supported herself by working as a secretary, a singer and working in radio in Chicago, Memphis, Dallas and Louisville. She was given the stage name of Dale Evans by a radio station manager who suggested it because it was easier to pronounce than Frances Octavia Smith.

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Light Crust Doughboys

The Light Crust Doughboys are an American western swing band from the Lone Star State created in 1931 to promote Light Crust Flour and other products of Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas, a suburb of Ft. Worth. The original group was formed by the company president, W. Lee O’Daniel and performed until about 1942. During this period they began a radio broadcast on KFJZ in Ft. Worth and the show would open with the announcer saying “The Light Crust Doughboys are on the air!” After the first couple of weeks, O’Daniel wanted to cancel the show, but its early popularity encouraged him to continue the broadcast and it came a popular stable at noon each weekday. This is a YouTube link to a 1934 recording of the group’s theme song.

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Gene Autry, Tioga’s Singing Cowboy

Gene Autry was born on September 29, 1907 in Tioga, Texas in Grayson County. There is some sentiment for him having been born in a neighboring county, since Dr. Eugene Ledbetter, who delivered Autry, gave nearby Cooke County as where Autry was born. Autry’s biography lists Tioga as his birthplace.

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Audie Murphy, a Texas Hero

Audie Leon Murphy was born in the village of Kingston, Hunt County, Texas (north of Greenville) in 1925 to Emmett Berry and Josie Bell Killian Murphy, a family of sharecroppers. Audie was the sixth of twelve children. His father abandoned the family when Audie was eight and his mother died when he was a teenager. Audie dropped out of school at the elementary level, in order to help support his family. Looking at this humble resume, not much would have been expected of him.