The secretary-turned-model stayed out of the public eye for the most part since the after her pin-up days, granting a few interviews in the 1990s, but never allowing photographs to be taken. She said “I don't think my fans want to see me old and fat. I've got to get another 20-25 pounds off somehow - remember me as I looked when I was younger”. After her modeling days, she battled alcoholism, depression and was divorced three times. She found religion, and tried to live a fairly normal life. In the 1990s, she did start to use her name and old notoriety for business licensing and merchandising.
Most of her photographs and even the original negatives were destroyed by court order when congress started looking into her sexy photographs. This is why most pictures you find today are grainy and old-looking. They are copies of copies of copies. Oddly, there was an innocence in many of her pinup pictures that is lacking in much of today’s popular culture, whether it’s television, advertising or even the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.
She was the centerfold in the January 1955 issue of Playboy magazine, and she specialized in sexy, often controversial sadomasochistic poses. The 5' 5½" model ‘born with the perfect figure’ (36-24-36½) was born in 1923, said about her career "I was not trying to be shocking, or to be a pioneer. I wasn't trying to change society, or to be ahead of my time. I didn't think of myself as liberated, and I don't believe that I did anything important. I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any other way to live."
Her look, including her jet black hair and trademark bangs, has influenced many models, film makers and artists. Even if you didn’t know her name or know her at a glance, you have seen her influence. Bettie still has a huge cult following and she was true to herself and had no delusions about what she was doing. "Being in the nude isn't a disgrace unless you're being promiscuous about it. After all, when God created Adam and Eve, they were stark naked. And in the Garden of Eden, God was probably naked as a jaybird too!"
