A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Page lived in California in her early adult years before moving to New York City to pursue work as an actress. There, she found work as a pin-up model, and she posed for dozens of photographers throughout the 1950s. Page was "Miss January 1955", one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy Magazine. After years in obscurity, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s.
In 1959, Page converted to evangelical Christianity and worked for Billy Graham, studying at Bible colleges in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, with the intent of becoming a missionary. The latter part of Page's life was marked by depression, violent mood swings, and several years in a state psychiatric hospital with paranoid schizophrenia.
Betty Mae Page, who in childhood began spelling her first name "Bettie", was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1923, the second of six children to Walter Roy Page (1896–1964) and Edna Mae Pirtle (1901–1986). During her early years, the Page family traveled around the country in search of economic stability. At a young age, she had to face the responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings, particularly after her father was convicted for car theft and spent two years in an Atlanta, Georgia, prison.

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