Roy Rogers Museum in Branson closing....Sad

[Ginny Morgan]

I dont know if this is old news here or not but I was just told that the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson is closing and everything is being sold...I just went to this link and it appears to be true. This link will take you to the annoncement by Roy Jr. cut and paste it into your browser as I can't get the link thingy to work......http://www.royrogers.com/announcement.html

This is so sad. One of the biggest regrets of my life is that I never met Roy or Dale or went to the museum when it was here in S. Cal. Gosh, an era is truly over now...Now I am depressed...

[Odessa Red]

Sheesh....they barely just moved there!...heck how do you think I feel Ginny...the museum was only 10 mins from me and I never took the time to go there before they tore it down and moved to Branson. I can't believe they are closing down already. I'll go check out that website.

[Ginny Morgan]

[Marshalsparky]

Kansas city news said they where looking for new sight around Branson.

[Bud Edgar]

We visited the Museum when it was in Victorville,Ca. Roy was gone and Dale happened to be in Calgary at the same time.We are so happy to have seen it, & l still have a souvenir shirt.It's too bad,but they will never be forgotten.

[Terry Boniface (Malpaso)]

Thats really sad news, lets hope its just a move of location.

[Wolfgang]

It looked to me like a mistake moving to Branston. And I've been seeing Roy Rogers guns listed for upcoming auctions . . . so figured they were in trouble ( $s wise that is ) . . . . I sat thru Pittsburg Pirate games my grandad was watching on TV . . . .hoping and hoping that they would not go into extra innings . . . . as I couldn't see Roy Rogers until after the Pirates gave was over. Talk about STRESS ! Long, long ago.

[Johnny Kendrick]

One of the highlights of my life was when we drove to Victorville one spring specifically to see the museum. We had been told Roy sometimes visits in the morning and were sitting in the gift shop/lobby with a few other folks waiting. Suddenly, he came through the door beside us with his million-dollar grin and started shaking hands. My boy was four at the time, sitting on my lap decked out in his best cowboy duds. Roy said, "Well, here's a little cowboy," talked with him, held him on his lap and made an unforgettable moment for him and me. Others who were there got their turn, and I remember a burly truck driver who was in tears at the experience of meeting his hero in the flesh. I got the chance to talk with Roy for a little while, and I'll never forget it. It may be the only time in my life when the person in the flesh lived up to the hero I'd always imagined. I too am sad to hear the museum is closing, even though Trigger pawing through the glitter trash at Branson is nothing like coming into Victorville and seeing him reaching toward the sky. I hope he and Roy and Dale's things can find a better home.

[Ginny Morgan]

Those are great stories and comments, guys. Roy, Gene and the rest of that generation were so unique. It is a shame the kids today have no heros like them...as someone said, times change and perhaps I am getting to be a fuddy duddy but I don't think it is for the better in many ways.

[Jim Holden]

For those of us that lived through that '50's and '60's cultural phenomenon of the "Singing Cowboy" it is sad to see the reminders of that era leaving us, no matter that what they presented was really a "faux" version of the Old West. I think there's a dividing line between generations and the newer one appreciates more the "adult" Westerns that show a grittier side of Western life (and some revisionist history). Films like "Tombstone" and "Dances with Wolves" take on a life of their own, and, of course, "Lonesome Dove" is in that class.

It's interesting that "The Autry Museum" is flourishing in Los Angeles because it mixes the Old West from the Movies with what happened in real life, along with art and sculpture.

Don't mean to sound like I'm not a fan, because I am - but I never preferred the Singing Cowboys over the others like Lash LaRue, Johnny Mack Brown and such. I wish my grandkids could be exposed to the Western role models that I had when I grew up.