HAPPY TRAILS, PURTY SIDEKICK.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY

What Nancy Davis was, and still is, to Ronald Reagan - Dale Evans was to Roy Rogers.

``She was so protective of him, guarded him closely and loved him dearly,'' said Joe Cranston of Reel Cowboys, a group of old cowboy actors who worked in radio, TV and movie westerns.

I thought so. Glued to our 13-inch, black-and-white TV sets back in the '50s, we kids could tell Dale Evans was one pretty cool woman.

She was the only cowgirl my buddies and I didn't mind our cowboy heroes hanging around with because she seemed more a sidekick than a wife.

We didn't mind her singing because she never tried to kiss Roy in public, or take him shopping in town when he had more important things to be doing, like brushing Trigger or chasing bad guys.

No, if you had to get married, Dale was the kind of wife the guys in my neighborhood wanted.

``I can still see her sitting there during the radio shows knitting, and keeping one eye on the script for her lines,'' Cranston said.

``She'd put down her knitting, walk up to the microphone, deliver her lines perfectly, then go back to her knitting. These were the early days of taped shows, not live.

``Meanwhile, Roy's up there blowing his lines, wanting to do it over again. Dale would finally say, `Aw, shucks, Roy, just say the words.'

``She could be tough, but in that way that told you she was very protective and caring of her man - just like Nancy was with Ronald Reagan,'' Cranston said.

But maybe her greatest legacy had nothing to do with toughness or what we boys were watching on that TV set in the '50s. Maybe it was what the girls were seeing.

``She's the reason I became a cowgirl,'' said Katie West, a successful western celebrity artist who has a ranch in Norco.

``I was raised in an abusive environment, and it was while watching their TV show that I began to take the values of Roy and Dale over what I was living with,'' West said. ``They became the foundation of my life, and Dale became the woman I wanted to be.''

This is something Joel Dortch, director of the Happy Trails Children's Foundation in Apple Valley, has heard from a lot of women who visit there with their families.

The men talk about Roy, their cowboy hero. The women, Dale Evans - a role model for girls growing up in the '50s.

The foundation runs the Cooper Home for Abused Children, where hundreds of boys, ages 9 to 15, have gotten firsthand what Katie West got from that TV screen.

The values of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

``The home was very near and dear to Dale's heart because back in the early '50s, she and Roy adopted a son, Sandy, in northern Kentucky who had been severely abused,'' Dortch said.

``She witnessed firsthand the effects of child abuse, and wanted Happy Trails to be a special, safe and loving place for abused kids.

``A lot of people may have forgotten, but Roy and Dale were once one of the most popular couples in the country,'' he said.

Like Nancy and Ron, role models for a generation that didn't forget.