THE life-size cardboard cut-out is something of a talking point when you visit Betty Roby. Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, lives on in the youthful and white-hatted splendour which thrilled generations of cinema-goers from the 1930s onwards. Her home in Staton Avenue, Bolton also contains a Roy Rogers clock, signed prints and pictures, posters, books, embroidered cushions, scrapbooks, records, ornaments and film videos.

These include Bells of San Angelo, Twilight in the Sierras and Robin Hood of the Pecos (with Gabby Hayes).

Betty, aged 57, has been a fan of the Western good guy since she saw him at the pictures in Wigan when she was a little girl and argued fiercely - during games of cowboys and indians - if anybody had the nerve to suggest that Gene Autry was better.

She always said that when she grew up she would go to America and meet her hero.

So she did - when she celebrated her 50th birthday in 1990.

Since then Betty has made five more visits to the museum in Victorville, California which tells the story of Roy Rogers and his wife Dale Evans (Queen of the West), now 85 and 84 respectively.

She has been delighted with the way they have taken time to chat with her, sign autographs and pose for pictures.

Another trip is planned for next year.

"They are both very much into religion," Betty said today.

"They are genuine people."

Her interest in Roy Rogers was re-kindled after many years when she heard about a B-movie festival in Manchester in the 1980s and went along.

Eventually she plucked-up the courage to make the trip across the Atlantic and meet her favourite cowboy with tears in her eyes.

In the lobby they chatted and sang "It Is No Secret What God Can Do" together.

Looking back, Betty says: "I had realised a dream and I just could not believe it.

"I was so overcome I could not stop crying."

She is married with two grown-up children and says her husband, Keith, thinks she is crazy.

There is also a communications problem sometimes when she talks to customers at the greengrocer's shop in Ainsworth Lane where she has worked for more than 25 years.

When people said they had never heard of Roy Rogers she used to say "ask your mother."

These days it tends to be "ask your grandmother".

This week Betty gave a talk on Roy Rogers when the British American Association met at Ladybridge Hall in Chorley New Road, Bolton.

The Association, which was formed about eight years ago, is chaired by former Greater Manchester councillor Brian Tetlow and the secretary is Geoffrey Timmington, the former Director of Technical Services with Bolton Council.

About 40 members exchange contacts, information and knowledge of American culture and history.

More details are available from Mr Timmington on Bolton 844041. But what happened to trusty steed Trigger? ROY Rogers made 88 films during a career which ran from 1932 to 1975.

Between 1951 and 1956 he made nearly 200 half-hour television episodes of The Roy Rogers Show with his wife Dale Evans and his famous palamino horse Trigger. When Trigger died he was stuffed and mounted and now takes pride of place in the museum.

Dale's horse Buttermilk and Bullet the dog have had the same treatment. Other business interests include more than 200 Roy Rogers restaurants throughout America and Canada.

Roy and Dale celebrate their golden wedding anniversary later this year.

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