January 15, 2012 (Cont'd) ABOVE: Wilma Tidwell Packer poses for a portrait at her home in Marriott-Slaterville. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans have been her heroes since the 1940s, and she recently had a letter she had written to Rogers printed in the book 'The Touch of Roy and Dale." LEFT: This photograph shows Packer's father, who died when Packer was 10. Photos by NICHOLAS DRANEY/Standard-Examiner illness, and she remembers a few things about him. "He rode a bicycle a lot, and he'd take me with him on the bicycle," she said. "He knew how to play the accordion, and he knew how to speak Swiss." Like her cowboy hero, he knew how to yodel. Packer also has fond memories of her mother. "She always had white hair," she said, adding that her mother had scarlet fever at the age of 12. "She lost all of her hair, and when it did come back in, it was white." When Packer's father died, her mother had to work as a cook to support the family. "Mother had four children to raise, and we helped her in any way we could," Packer said, explaining that she did a lot of cleaning, ironing and baby-sitting. "She'd leave me orders on what she wanted done when I got home from school." In her letter to Rogers, Packer said, "I have a wonderful mother. I love her with all my heart, and I know if my dad had lived he would have given me love, too." But because she did miss having a father so much, she turned to her hero. "If I could have two sets of parents, I would choose you and Dale," she wrote. Packer's mother knew her daughter admired the King of the Cowboys and Queen of the West, and listened as she talked about them and their movies. "My mother would come in my room and she would say, T see you have some new pictures up,' " Packer wrote to Rogers. Packer liked Rogers' and Evans' shows, in part, 184