A cowgirl and a country boy: Country music's Halloween-born performers

October 31, 10:27 AMNashville Country Music ExaminerLisa L. Rollins

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 Tennessee native Darryl Worly is a Halloween baby.
 (Photo: Campbell Entertainment Group)

SHeDAISY singer Kassidy Osborn and the late Patsy Montana came close to being Halloween babies, with their respective Oct. 30 birthdays. But close counts only in horseshoes, as those from the country likely know.

Country singer Darryl Worley, however, was born on the Halloween mark with his pumpkin-filled Oct.  31, 1964, birth in Pyburn, Tenn.

As an artist, he’s scored 17 singles on the country charts, including three No. 1 songs: "I Miss My Friend," "Have You Forgotten?" and "Awful, Beautiful Life."

Along the way, the ruggedly handsome artist's sold nearly two million albums, earned nominations for five major Academy of Country Music and CMA Awards, including Song of the Year and Single of the Year, and he's penned songs for other major artists, including George Jones.

Most recently, the one-time Playgirl centerfold is promoting his latest studio CD, Sounds Like Life, on the Stroudavarious Records label, and he has a top-20 hit with the album’s title track. Moreover, his annual Tennessee River Run has become a well-attended, fundraising event that people road trip to attend.

 Cowgirl singer Dale Evans was born on Oct. 31,
 1912 in Texas. (Photo: www.royrogers.com)

Although most might not recognize the Frances Octavia Smith name, such was the given moniker of the late singing cowgirl known to fans worldwide as Dale Evans.

Born in Uvalde, Texas, in 1912 on Halloween, the would-be singing and TV star reportedly had a tumultuous early life, eloping at the age of 14 with her first husband, Thomas F. Fox with whom she had one son, Thomas F. Fox Jr., when she was just 15.

The marriage didn’t last, however, and at 17 Evans divorced only to remarry that same year; this time, to August Wayne Johns that same year. Their marriage lasted until 1935, and it was at this point that she adopted the Dale Evans name in a move to promote her singing career.

In 1937, she married her accompanist and arranger, Robert Dale Butts in 1937. But it wasn’t until her fourth marriage, in 1947, that love lasted when she wed the thrice-married Roy Rogers at the Flying L Ranch in Davis, Okla. The couple had two children and remained happily married for 51 years.

From 1951 to 1957, Evans and Rogers starred in the highly successful television series The Roy Rogers Show, in which they continued their cowboy/cowgirl roles. However, beyond her TV success, she was in 30-plus films and recorded some 200 songs, in addition to penning the now-classic "Happy Trails."

Ranked No. 34 on CMT's 40 "Greatest Women in Country Music" in 2002, Evans--who died in 2001, two years after her late husband--also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.