Sons of the Pioneers leader is dead at 83

Singer Dale Warren, leader of Sons of the Pioneers, died of heart failure on Aug. 9 in Branson, Mo., said his wife, Margie Warren. He was 83 years old.

Warren and his band spent their winters and springs performing at Western-themed restaurants in Tucson for almost 23 years before heading back to Branson permanently in 2006.

The band performed most of its shows at Triple C Chuckwagon Suppers between 1984 and 2003, when the Triple C closed. The band also did shows at the Hidden Valley Inn until that restaurant closed in 2006.

The band formed in the 1930s and recorded many songs with Western movie legend Roy Rogers, who was one of the founding members.

The band also sang in movies for Columbia Pictures cowboy star Charles Starrett.

Warren joined the band in 1952 and became its leader in 1977.

Mae Camp, who owned Triple C Chuckwagon with her husband, Chuck, remembers Warren falling in love with Tucson when he came to do a show at the restaurant in 1984.

"Dale liked the place and decided he would be here during the season," she said.

Margie Warren, 86, confirmed the couple's love for Tucson and said she still misses the city.

"Tucson is just kind of hard to beat. I don't mind the heat at all," she said. "We just liked everything."

The band would stay in Tucson for the winter and spring seasons before returning to Branson in the summer and fall.

Camp had known the group members since 1954 and was a longtime fan of their music.

"They've always been stars as far as I was concerned. They were just really a nice group of gentlemen as well," she said.

Despite their love for Tucson, Dale Warren lamented the demise of the city's Western culture before the band left a few years ago.

"It seems like the Western element is fading," he said in an interview after the group's farewell show in 2006.