Gene Autry, 91, singing cowboy, dies

By Beth Harris, Associated Press writer

LOS ANGELES -- In his movies and TV series, Gene Autry played the same unchangeable character: a true-blue son of the West who always fought fair and square and loved his horse, Champion.

Off the screen, Autry was a shrewd businessman who owned baseball's Anaheim Angels for more than 30 years.

Hollywood's original singing cowboy died at his home yesterday after a long illness. He was 91.

Autry's death came three months after the industry bid happy trails to Roy Rogers, who replaced Autry as Hollywood's top cowboy when Autry left to serve in World War II.

"He often considered himself the baby sitter of three generations of children" while they watched his movies on Saturday afternoons, said Alex Gordon, who met Autry 52 years ago during a singing tour of England and later became his director of licensing.

"And these weren't just bang-bang, shoot 'em-up Westerns. He always wanted to put a moral in the story."

Autry popularized the musical Western in 91 movies from the 1930s to the early '50s. Autry's ventures into movies, music, radio, TV and broadcasting were major successes.

Autry hung up his performing spurs in 1956, but continued to own four radio stations, the Gene Autry Hotel in Palm Springs, and several other properties. In 1982, he sold Los Angeles television station KTLA for $245 million.

He ranked for many years on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans, before he fell in 1995 to the magazine's "near miss" category with an estimated net worth of $320 million.

Only baseball left him wanting.

Although he owned the Anaheim Angels for more than three decades, the baseball franchise never won a pennant, a major disappointment for one of the sport's biggest fans.

"He knew the singing cowboy had pretty much died out by 1954 and that's when he moved on to other things," said James Nottage, vice president and chief curator of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Griffith Park. "He had incredible business savvy."

Autry made 635 recordings, including such favorites as "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "You Are My Sunshine." He sold more than 100 million records and had the first certified gold record, "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine."

"It occurs to me that music, with the possible exception of riding a bull, is the most uncertain way to make a living I know," Autry wrote in "Back in the Saddle Again," his 1978 autobiography.

"In either case, you can get bucked off, thrown, stepped on, trampled -- if you get on at all. At best, it is a short and bumpy ride. It isn't easy to explain why you keep coming back. But you do," he said.

Singer Glen Campbell said he knew Autry for 32 years. In fact, the first song he learned as a child was "That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine."

"He wrote about America, about people. To lose my two favorite cowboys in one year ... it's kind of stressing. It's like we really lost a piece of America," Campbell said in a telephone interview from Nashville.

Resolute in his dealings with the guys in black hats, he was affable around the good guys, and always found time to pick up his guitar and sing his theme song, "Back in the Saddle Again." The drama was offset by his comic sidekicks.

Autry's genial presence made him a huge hit with fans. He was the first performer to sell out New York's Madison Square Garden and frequently toured Europe with his concert and rodeo shows. Autry was a tireless worker, doing two shows a day, seven days a week, for up to 85 consecutive days.

On stage or in the owner's box, a handshake was usually good enough to seal a deal.

Rod Carew, a coach and player for Autry, said: "He didn't care if you were a rookie player or a superstar, he treated everyone with class."

Autry's death came just one week after the Angels were eliminated from the American League West playoff race by the Texas Rangers. It was the third time in four years the team finished second in its division. The Angels haven't made the playoffs since 1986.

"I'll always harbor this secret feeling that he gave up when the Angels didn't make it this year," television producer and longtime friend Dick Clark said.

Born in Tioga, Texas, on Sept. 29, 1907, Autry was raised in Texas and Oklahoma. By age 5, he was singing in his grandfather's church choir. He bought his first guitar from a mail order catalog for $5 when he was 12.

Humorist Will Rogers encouraged Autry to try his luck in radio. He soon became a hit at a local radio station and landed a recording contract with Columbia Records in 1929.

He is survived by his wife, Jackie, and a sister, Veda.

Photos by The Associated Press
Top: Actor Gene Autry parlayed a $5 mail-order guitar in to a career as Hollywood's first singing cowboy. Bottom: Autry poses with his horse, Champion, in an undated file photo.