January 15, 2012 (Cont'd) because there wasn't a lot of "mushy stuff." An uncle, who worked as a painter for a movie studio, told Packer that the two were the same in person as they seemed onscreen. "They just were clean people, and I just thought that's the way I should be — live a clean life, and help people when I could," she said. "I'd watch their movies, and get ideas and opinions from the movies on what to do." That was what resonated with so many fans, according to Tricia Spencer, the author of the book. "What you saw on-screen, that goodness and kindness, was the same off-screen," she said. Still heroes Packer was thrilled when her heroes, who met while filming a show, eventually married. "I loved to watch their movies, and every time the movie would end, I would tell myself, 'Roy and Dale, someday, are going to get married.' They did, when I was 15 years old," she said. Packer married at age 18, soon after graduating from high school, and doesn't know what happened to the Rogers/Evans memorabilia she left at her mother's house. But she still has copies of books Evans wrote, and a prized photo of the couple, signed "Wilma, Many Happy Trails, Roy Rogers." She got the photo, in response to a fan letter she had sent, when she was about 20 years old and living in Brigham City. "I received that picture on a day when I was ill with a very bad headache and was down in bed with it. I opened the envelope, and I was so happy!" she told Rogers years BELOW: Packer looks at a photograph of Dale Evans that appears in the book 'The Touch of Roy and Dale." later, in the letter published in the book. She keeps the picture on her fireplace mantle, next to pictures of her parents. Fan mail Packer was surprised when she was contacted by Spencer. "I sent that letter many, many years ago, and I never dreamed that this would happen," Packer said. The book also includes a short letter from Myrna Daly of Lehi. Spencer acquired the letters from Packer and Daly — and almost 40,000 others — in 2003, at estate sales after the deaths of Rogers and Evans. "I knew after reading the first three or four letters that there was a book in there," said the author, who lives in Riverside, Calif. "It's amazing how people poured out their hearts to Roy and Dale." - In the letters, a number of people said they named their children after Roy and Dale. "They changed careers, and wrote about how they changed their life and chose a certain path because of the way Roy and Dale set an example, and the way Roy and Dale cared about people," Spencer said. "They embraced them as the heroes they were." 185