Betty Page was born on April 22, 1923 and from the very beginning led an extraordinary life, and not always an extraordinarily good one. Bettie was the victim of poverty & sexual abuse and spent time in an orphanage as she was growing up. The amazing thing about Bettie Page, was despite all of it, she kept that bright, unencumbered smile.

On Thursday, Bettie Page passed away in Los Angeles. Page had been hospitalized for three weeks and was scheduled to be released when she suffered a heart attack last week. After the heart attack, Bettie lapsed into a coma from which she didn’t recover.

Bettie Page is a legend, an icon, and a fascinating story. She was discovered walking on the beach at Coney Island. From that one happenstance, Bettie pioneered the fetish pin-up look that’s been emulated for more than 50 years.

Looking back on the career that followed, she told Playboy in 1998, “I never thought it was shameful. I felt normal. It’s just that it was much better than pounding a typewriter eight hours a day, which gets monotonous.”

Nudity didn’t bother her, she said, explaining: “God approves of nudity. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, they were naked as jaybirds.”

[From MSN Entertainment]

When Bettie was 34, a congressional investigation was launched into the BDSM photography Page had started specializing in, and may I say, perfecting, so she retreated from the public eye. Bettie became a born-again Christian and worked for years for the Billy Graham Ministry.

After some violent incidents with landlords in Los Angeles in her 50s, Page was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was sentenced by the court to a mental institution and state supervision. By this time, Page was no longer known for her early modelling and had not received any further compensation for her iconic work. But as so many things do, the notoriety, if not the proper compensation, was about to come back around.

A resurgence of interest in Bettie Page as an iconic figure started in the 80s. Magazines, books, and movies chronicled her story and interest in her image skyrocketed. Newer pictures of her, however, were completely off limits as far as Bettie was concerned.

After resurfacing in the 1990s, she occasionally granted interviews but refused to allow her picture to be taken.

“I don’t want to be photographed in my old age,” she told an interviewer in 1998. “I feel the same way with old movie stars. … It makes me sad. We want to remember them when they were young.”

The 21st century indeed had people remembering her just as she was. She became the subject of songs, biographies, Web sites, comic books, movies and documentaries. A new generation of fans bought thousands of copies of her photos, and some feminists hailed her as a pioneer of women’s liberation.

[From MSN Entertainment]

More recently, with the help of agent Mark Roesler, Bettie was successful in getting a fraction of the money people made off of her for herself. It will never be enough, but it’s comforting, as a major fan, to know that somehow, in the end, Bettie got a little piece of what Bettie Page gave the world. I hope Bettie was happy and content with her life. I have a feeling she is, and she’s smiling that fantastic smile!

Here is a video of Bettie Page doing some mild burlesque in 1950