Queen of the Pin-ups

Bettie Page, who has been described as the girl with hair as dark as midnight and a smile that could melt an iceberg, is perhaps the the best known and most popular pin-up model of all time. Bettie Page embraced sexuality in the 1950s, a time when being a sexual woman was kept behind closed doors. She graced covers of many magazines in many poses. Many of them wearing not much more than a smile.

She was born on April 22, 1923, the second of Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle’s six children. Troubles caused her parents to divorce when Bettie was only 10 years old, her mother placed her and her two sisters in an orphanage while she worked and saved money.

Bettie married in February 1943 and after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Peabody College she moved to San Francisco with her husband. It was here that she got her first modeling job and traveled to many places. In 1947 she filed for divorce and moved to New York.

In 1950 she meet Jerry Tibbs, a police officer and amateur photographer. Tibbs took pictures that became her first pin-up portfolio. Soon a photographic modeling career was in full bloom.

In 1955, Bettie was named “Miss Pinup Girl of the World.” and was the centerfold in Playboy’s January issue. The “Girl with the Perfect Figure,” was appearing in everything from record albums to playing cards.

In the years of the 1960’s and 1970’s she lived as a normal everyday person. In the 1980’s she emerged after a countrywide search for Bettie. She died on December 11, 2008 after being hospitalized with pneumonia. She was scheduled to be released, suffered a heart attack from which she never regained consciousness.