Len Slye and Will Rogers

From Milady's reads this week:

Len Slye had been an adoring fan of Will Rogers for years. And he and his co-workers were surprised and pleased one day in 1935 when they received word that Will was a fan of "The Sons of the Pioneers" and hoped they could appear with him at a Salvation Army benefit at San Bernardino. When the evening arrived and the program was over, Will shook hands all around, thanking the boys warmly. "I won't be seeing you for a while, fellows," Will Rogers said. "I'm taking off tomorrow with Wiley Post for Alaska."

(For those who may not know, the famous commentator and the famous aviator never returned. I've been to the lake where they went down.)

Len Slye later became famous as Roy Rogers, and "because of the name and his own homespun qualities and his own grass-roots language, he would often be mistaken in the future for the great American humorist's son."

The Answer is God
The inspiring personal story of Dale Evans and Roy Rogers
by Elise Miller Davis
McGraw-Hill, 1955