Betty Page, Christian

Betty Page, the risque pin-up girl with the black bangs who gained fame in the 1950s and later served with the Billy Graham Evangelical ministries in obscurity, has died at the age of 85.




How strange it is that the seven years she spent as a photogenic Jezebel overshadows the five decades she spent serving Jesus. And yet I wonder if her former life so really contradicts her latter life with her irrepresible joie de vivre. And as the years went on, her inner beauty-- the desire to serve others and understand herself and God-- exceeded her outer beauty that she so radiated in the prime of her life.

Page's early cheesecake photographs in my view has the same intrinsic evil as cherry cobbler pie. It's all good-natured fun. But in her few interviews, Betty has expressed regret for some of those pictures and she was astonished that her iconic image took on a life of its own.

After she became a Christian in 1957, Betty attended three Bible schools and later tried to become a missionary to Africa. She was active in a number of Billy Graham crusades and also volunteered in outreach activities, such as for unwed mothers.