Rogers, Evans Had a Long Ride in Valley

When the Chatsworth Rail Station was dedicated a year ago, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans rode the train into the station to their signature tune, “Happy Trails to You.”

The song was written by Evans, and the books she wrote occupy at least half a shelf at the Homestead Museum at Chatsworth Park South. They are one of many signs that the king and queen of film westerns have had a long and friendly association with the San Fernando Valley.

Chatsworth still has streets named Dale Court and Trigger Lane, near the property owned by Rogers and Evans from 1953 until the mid-1960s. The couple moved away after a daughter, Debbie, was killed in a bus accident. Both in their 80s, the couple now live in Apple Valley, near their museum in Victorville, where Rogers still sometimes puts in appearances.

“Roy said the reason they left was they had a lot of sad things happen here,” said Virginia Watson, president of the Chatsworth Historical Society and a friend of Rogers and Evans. “Everywhere they looked reminded them of her.”

In the 1940s, Rogers and Evans lived on Amestoy Avenue in Encino in a Spanish-style ranch home. Future owners would find wagon wheels and horseshoes on the property. “I can remember people talking about him riding his horse down Ventura Boulevard,” Watson said.

Rogers and Evans gave the last $1,000 in Debbie Rogers’ bank account to help preserve and move Chatsworth Community Church to Oakwood Memorial Park in 1965. The church is now called Pioneer Church, Watson said.

Rogers also returned to the church for its 90th birthday in 1993 and was a gracious guest, friendly to all, Watson said: “He was wonderful. . . . Everyone wanted to touch him.”