Bettie Page was worshiped, celebrated and criticized, but this iconic 1950′s Queen of Pin-ups and Pin-up heroine became an obsession who bewitched and enchanted worshiping followers...yesterday and today.
An enchantress, Bettie was born Betty Mae Page, April 11, 1923 in Jackson, Tennessee, southwest of Nashville. Bettie was the second of six children growing up in a family so financially strapped, she was quoted as saying 'we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings.' Financial hardships weren't the only worries on Bettie's mind as a child. It's said that Page's father molested all of the girls in the family. What is known, however, by all reports, is that Bettie's father was eventually sent to prison for a period in her life and she lived in an orphanage. By ten years of age, her parents had divorced bringing on a period of change...
In spite of all of this turmoil and tragedy, and likely not in her wildest…show more content… A second failed marriage in 1951 to a younger man, Armond Walterson, followed after Bettie moved to the sunshine state of Florida. In 1967, Bettie again entered a third marriage to Harry Lear that also failed.
After a reported nervous breakdown and sense of redemption, in 1959, Bettie became a born-again Christian. While she applied for and was rejected as a missionary she worked for evangelist Billy Graham's ministry.
In 1979, after a move to Southern California, Bettie was diagnosed with acute schizophrenia. What followed would be a 20 month stay in a state mental hospital in San Bernardino, CA, and closely monitored supervision by the state for eight years. By 1993, the media caught wind that Betty was impoverished, and in her own words Bettie shared that she was "penniless and infamous."
Bettie Page died December 11, 2008 after a three week long battle with pneumonia and subsequent heart attack at age