Cowboy’s Fans Raise Funds for Star on Walk of Fame

A stream of fans and well-wishers greeted singing cowboy Eddie Dean at a Saturday fund-raiser organized to help buy the actor a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Fame.

Dean, 91, graciously received the guests, even when they came over more than once to introduce friends and relatives.

More than 100 people showed up for the event at the Iverson movie ranch, which featured food, country music, and vendors selling T-shirts, singing cowboy posters and other memorabilia. In keeping with the theme, most folks were decked out in cowboy hats, boots and other western wear.

Friends of Dean want to raise $3,500 for a Walk of Fame star. Any extra money would help build an Eddie Dean museum at the ranch, said Mickey Dawes, one of the fund-raiser organizers.

“We wanted to get him a star so that he was forever immortalized,” Dawes said. “He was very deserving of it.”

During the singing cowboy heyday between the 1930s and ‘50s, Dean starred in more than 35 B-movie westerns, including “Check Your Guns” and “The Tioga Kid.”

Dean is also known for the hit country songs “I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven,” which he co-wrote with Hal Southern, and “One Has My Name, the Other Has My Heart.”

Despite his poor health and reliance on an oxygen tank, Dean was in happy spirits Saturday. Wearing a leather jacket and cowboy hat, he reminisced about making movies at the ranch where he was being honored.

“It’s been a great life,” said Dean, who now lives in Westlake Village. “I don’t know how you could ask for anything more. I would be thrilled to have [the star].”

Pat Patterson, 60, said he came out to see Dean because he grew up watching Dean’s films and wanted to see one of the few singing cowboys still alive. Last year, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry died.

“He’s part of my youth. It’s nostalgia,” said Patterson, of Thousand Oaks.

Dick Jones of Northridge, said he has known Dean for more than 40 years and wanted to show his support.

“He’s the epitome of what the motion-picture cowboy stands for, one of the finest voices,” said Jones, 71. “He’s the golden-throated cowboy.”