One of you has asked me to print the whole article that Hal Spencer wrote about his dad (Tim Spencer) and mine (Roy Rogers), it is a very long article. However, I will be glad to share some more of the article here:

Dad (Roy Rogers) was born in Cincinnati and then moved to Portsmouth, Ohio on the Ohio River. Tim’s family lived across the Ohio River in Marysville, Kentucky.

Dad and Tim both moved from the city to the country when they were little.  Dad to Duck Run, Ohio and Tim’s family homesteaded in Northeastern New Mexico.

Dad worked in a shoe factory and Tim worked in a mine.  Both left those jobs and moved to California, Dad in 1930 and Tim in 1931.

Singing in the same group and on a tour from Arizona to Texas, they both met their future wives; Dad in Roswell, New Mexico (my Mommy Arline Wilkins) and Tim in Lubbock, Texas (Tim’s beautiful Velma).

I was also asked to write more about Dad’s Choctaw heritage. I’m really sorry but I don’t know anything other than that he was very proud of being part

Choctaw. I really wish I knew more but Dad didn’t seem to know much more than that. My husband is part Cherokee and his family never talked about that ancestor either.  Today that would be something to be proud of but three or so generations ago, I guess it was very different. What a shame that we don’t know more.

I just received an email from Julie Spencer, Hal’s wife and Tim’s daughter-in-law, that has a super article that Hal wrote for Dun Cusic entitled “Tim Spencer Was the Brother Roy Rogers Never Had.”  So true.

In the article, Hal points out various similarities that Tim and Roy had: both grew up along the Ohio River (Tim in Kentucky and Roy in Ohio), both were part American Indian (Tim Cherokee and Roy Choctaw), both sang with their brothers (The Spencer Brothers and the Slye Brothers – except Roy sang with his cousin Stan), and they were both fine singers and song writers, and both went to Southern California to realize their dreams of having a career in the entertainment business.