Bettie

Bettie

4×2, Acrylic on Luan

Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee on April 22, 1923 .  She was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos.  Her look, including her jet black hair, blue eyes and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists.  She was “Miss January 1955”, one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine.  In 1959, she converted to born-again Christianity, and later worked for Billy Graham.  She moved to Southern California in 1979.  There she had a nervous breakdown. The doctors that examined her diagnosed her with acute schizophrenia, and she spent 20 months in a state mental hospital. Her later life was marked by depression, violent moodswings and several years in a state psychiatric hospital.  After years of obscurity, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s.