RIP Bettie Page. What a sad day for all of us.

[NolaChick™ {Madam}]

"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."- Bettie Page 1923-2008


http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117997269.html?categoryId=25&...

Bettie Page dies at 85

Bettie Page, the legendary 1950s pin-up queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died, the L.A Times is reporting. She was 85.
She suffered a heart attack one week ago and never regained consciousness.

Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died at a Los Angeles hospital where she had been on life support since she had a heart attack on Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.

Her popularity as an underground, guilty pleasures phenomenon has continued to soar despite the fact that the reclusive Page disappeared almost a half century ago. A cult-culture figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 and to 1957.

[Ciao, Manhattan]

I know im prolly one of the only one who sees this as a good thing. Her later life seemed very painful and honestly i think shes in a better and happier place now. If she were healthy and not in the mental states she were in itd be different.... she definately was a huge icon and changed the way things were and she will be missed dearly for how inspiring she was. But perhaps this is better for her now.

[Soda Shop Sue]

r.i.p .. this women created a SUB-CULTURE which ALL OF US LIVE EVeRYDAY.... ifucking love that women, and for EVERYTHING she has created for us!!!
rock on to the pinups of the future, and i drink for the pinups of the past!!!

xoxo Soda Shop Sue

[Sammy Bee]

May her ability to be herself and nothing but live on strongly.

[Frankie Fairlane{★}]

:-( OHHHHH NOOO!!!...IM GONNA CRY!!..OH NO!, I HAD A NIGHTMARE LAST NIGHT ABOUT THIS VERY THING HAPPENING!...I DIDNT THINK THAT SHE WOULD LEAVE US THIS SOON!!! OHHH NOOOO!! I AM CRYING NOW. IM JUST IN DISBELIEF THAT THIS^ HAPPEND IN *MY LIFE TIME. I JUST CANT BELIEVE THIS^ HAPPEND AT ALL!!

RIP BETTIE <3

[AbSINthia V.]

such an icon! Her style impacted so many, and wasnt she so brave to do what she did in a time like then?! rest in peace Dear Bettie

[Frankie Sin]

Bettie paved the way for girls like us....we lost an inspiring, and beautiful woman today......thankfully she left such an amazing legacy behind, Bettie most definitely will never be forgotten....

[Wink Holliday]

May you rest in peace, my dear Miss Page. You remain an inspiration to us all.

[Bradley Harder]

Bettie was a true legend and pioneer and the reason I ever got into pinup art and the lifestyle. I will always be grateful for her emense contribution to our lives. Sweet dreams Bettie. xoxoxo

[Delyssia LaBelle {Madam}]

good bye betty. RIP.

[Amano Jyaku]

Anyone who knows me knows how much I loved Bettie! Words can't begin to convey my sadness... I am happy to see so much support and recognition I'm seeing from fans. I think Bettie would have liked to know how much people cared for her and enjoyed her work!

[NolaChick™ {Madam}]

Here's a nice little write up from Reuters...
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4BB0XP20081212

At the end it said she had no children, but I would disagree. She didn't have children in the traditional sense, but in a way, I feel that every model (pin up or not) who she influenced was a little bit of a type of daughter. We have learned a lot from this great lady!

Bettie Page, 1950s pin-up queen, dies in L.A.
Fri Dec 12, 2008 1:13am EST Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page | Recommend (9) [-] Text [+] By Dean Goodman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Bettie Page, one of America's most photographed pin-up girls during the 1950s, died in Los Angeles on Thursday from pneumonia, her agent said. She was 85.

Page was a ubiquitous sight during the 1950s, propelled to stardom when she posed for Playboy as Miss January 1955. Soon her image was gracing playing cards, record albums and bedroom posters across the country.

She stopped modeling in 1957, retreated from the public spotlight and turned to religion. She enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the 1980s, as a new generation of fans became obsessed with her legacy.

Her agent, Mark Roesler, said Page was admitted to a Los Angeles-area hospital four weeks ago. She never regained consciousness after suffering a heart attack earlier this month.

With her dark bangs, alluring blue-gray eyes and wide smile, Page cultivated an innocent girl-next-door persona. The one-time school teacher was nice, but clearly also naughty. Some of her photos featured spanking and bondage.

"Bettie Page embodied the stereotypical wholesomeness of the Fifties and the hidden sexuality straining beneath the surface," authors Karen Essex and James L. Swanson wrote in their 1996 book "Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend."

Page professed to be mystified by all the attention, saying she never felt particularly attractive and had to wear a lot of makeup to cover up her large pores. After she found God, she was initially ashamed of having posed nude.

"(B)ut now most of the money I've got is because I posed in the nude," she told Playboy last year. "So I'm not ashamed of it now, but I still don't understand it."

Bettie Mae Page was born on April 22, 1923, in Nashville, one of six children. She and two sisters were sent to an orphanage after her father went to jail and her mother could not cope on her own. Page later described her father as "a sex fiend" who started sexually molesting her when she was 13.

Page, armed with an arts degree with Peabody College in Nashville, did her first modeling work in the 1940s after moving to San Francisco with the first of her three husbands. After they divorced in 1947, she pursued modeling in New York. Photos from a shoot with Miami photographer Bunny Yeager ended up in the pages of Playboy.

The layout featured Page winking at the camera wearing only a Santa hat as she decorated a Christmas tree. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner described it as "a milestone in the history of the magazine," which he had founded less than two years earlier.

Later in life, Page was furious that Yeager made a fortune from the photos and never compensated her.

Some American lawmakers were not as impressed with her modeling abilities. Page was served with a subpoena to appear before U.S. Senate investigators trying to discover a link between juvenile delinquency and pornography. Page never appeared. Soon after, she completely disappeared from the scene.

After two other brief marriages failed, Page battled acute schizophrenia beginning in the early 1970s. Her comeback gathered momentum with the 1991 movie "The Rocketeer," based on a comic book where the hero's girlfriend was Page. Fan clubs and websites proliferated, and Page made a good living signing memorabilia at conventions. On the rare occasions that she gave interviews, she insisted that she not be photographed.

Page had no children. There was no immediate information about funeral plans.

[Retroatelier]

RIP Bettie, one of the most wonderful women ever...
I have posted some of our tributes to her in my port.