Dale Evans

By all accounts, they were rodeo megastars with their own television show and a massive fan base. He was known as “the Singing Cowboy,” she was called “Queen of the West.” Their stage names were Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Leonard Franklin Slye and Francis Octavia Smith (1912-2001) married at the Flying L Ranch in 1947. Their daughter Robin was born in 1950. They could tell something wasn’t right as doctors and nurses seemed to be talking to each other in hushed tones. One day, a nurse slipped and said something about Robin being a “borderline baby.” They pressed the doctors for answers and learned that Robin had Down Syndrome and a heart problem. Doctors advised them not to get too close to their baby since she wouldn’t know them. They also recommended placing Robin in a “home” for mongoloid babies (that was the designation for children with Down Syndrome in the 1950s). “No,” they said, “she’s going home with us.” Dale had always been career minded as it had always been her dream to make it big in show business. Somehow, with Robin in her life, fame assumed a lesser role. A change came over Roy also. He had only recently become a Christian but now was reading his Bible in earnest and praying more often. Robin died two days before her second birthday from a congenital heart defect. A year later, Dale wrote Angel Unaware about the difference their daughter made in their lives, a story told through Robin’s eyes. It was a slender sixty-three-page book that sold for a dollar and was a ground-breaking bestseller–the first time a parent had written about raising a child with Down Syndrome. Two million copies were sold, changing how Americans looked at children with developmental disabilities. The title was taken from Hebrews 13.1, about unsuspecting people who have entertained strangers as “angels unaware.” In the middle of the book, Dale prayed: