Bettie's Early Years

Bettie’s handwritten caption to the photograph reads: “I really can’t remember back to the time when this was taken! It certainly was before 1934. Anyway I think it’s cute!”
Source: Jean Elizabeth Goodrich Scrapbook

Bettie was born Jean Elizabeth Goodrich in Minnesota on December 4, 1916. She was the first daughter of Claude and Jean Goodrich. Claude M. Goodrich graduated from Dartmouth College and was an engineer. Jean Laura Stanley Goodrich attended Wellesley College and the New England Conservatory of Music.

Photograph of Bettie with her mother and sister (Jean Goodrich and Claudia Goodrich, respectively). Taken in 1932.
Source: Marilyn Lance

The Goodrich family moved to St. Johnsbury, Vermont soon after the birth of their daughters Jean Elizabeth and her younger sister, Claudia. Following the move, Claude Goodrich died of influenza, one of the many who perished in the Great Flu Epidemic. The girls attended several schools where their mother taught music as a means of earning money for the family. Bettie graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1933. Their mother was a music teacher in St. Johnsbury, which is recorded in Bettie's scrapbook with a program from one of their mother's students' recitals.

The scrapbook portrays a fun-loving young woman who tried her hand at marksmanship and building a model airplane. Bettie and her mother shared a love of music. This is evident in the presence of her mother's music program and numerous programs from theater productions and concerts that Bettie kept in her scrapbook. To learn more about the programs in the scrapbook, see the Culture of the 1930s section.

Bettie's model airplane.
Source: Jean Elizabeth Goodrich Scrapbook

Bettie's target practice.
Source: Jean Elizabeth Goodrich Scrapbook