Pin-Up Pioneer Bettie Page Dead at 85

'50s sensation helped set the stage for sexual revolution
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 12, 2008 1:45 AM CST
Pin-Up Pioneer Bettie Page Dead at 85
Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution. Page died Thursday at age 85.   (AP Photo/CMG Worldwide)

Pin-up queen Bettie Page died yesterday from a heart attack she suffered earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reports. She was 85. The secretary-turned-model shot to fame in the 1950s through thousands of saucy photographs, many of which featured her nude or in bondage gear. Page, credited with helping usher in the sexual revolution of the '60s, quit modeling at 35 to become a born-again Christian and later battled mental illness.

In her later years Page was happy to discuss her modeling career but never allowed herself to be photographed. "I want to be remembered as I was when I was young and in my golden times," she said. "I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form." Page had been on life support at a Los Angeles hospital. (More Bettie Page stories.)

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