My visit with Betty Whitaker

By Jennifer Steinberg

During the summer of 1984, I worked at a summer camp outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. I had seen the movie “Frances” earlier that year and, for days afterward, couldn't get her story out of my head. It seemed clear to me that she was born before her time and that all she tried to do was to express herself, and met tragic circumstances because of it. I found the books Will There Really Be a Morning and Shadowland at the local library, and read them thoroughly.  I was much more interested in Frances as a person and the problems she faced than her life as a "movie star," even though the two subjects are so interrelated.  I felt fortunate that my summer job had left me in the city where Frances lived during the last part of her life.

The first thing I did in my quest to find someone who actually knew Frances Farmer was to visit the library in Indianapolis.  There, on microfilm, I found several articles on her, including her obituary. I discovered that the house where she lived at the time of her death was within a few miles of where I was staying.  I also learned that she was buried at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens (see photo at bottom), which was within driving distance.  I thought I would take a chance and look up her home address in the cross-reference directory, and found the telephone number.  I doubted that I would be able to call and find a person who knew her, but I was very idealistic and determined, and figured it was worth a try.

That afternoon, I called the number and spoke with a woman (I think it was Betty Whitaker's daughter), who told me that Betty would be home after 3:30 P.M.  Wow!  I was shocked that I was going to have the chance to talk to Betty Whitaker!  I recognized her name as being mentioned in Will There Really Be a Morning. I waited until the next morning to call her back. When I called, I asked if we could arrange a time when she was free to talk on the telephone. I wanted to ask her a list of questions about Frances. After convincing her that I was an interested kid, not a reporter or some weirdo, and that I was passionate about learning about Frances the person, she agreed that I could call back that evening.  At 7:00 P.M. I called her, list of questions in hand.  First, I told her that I was really excited and nervous about talking to her and that if I asked any questions she was uncomfortable with, just to tell me.  I proceeded to interview her and learned that she met Frances through Jean Ratcliffe.  She told me that Frances was a gentle woman, planted flowers and didn't generally trust people.  She enjoyed Brown County (and even had a cottage there), nature and was proud of her pioneer heritage.  She said that Frances did not have a lobotomy, and that she and Jean refused to see the Jessica Lange movie.  They were consulted and more involved in the TV movie starring Susan Blakely, which I hadn't seen at the time.  She said that Frances had a "keen mind," a "temper like a wildcat" and could get violent and throw things during her drinking bouts. She also said that it took Frances an hour to sew on a button and she never had on two socks that matched!  After our conversation that night, she invited me to the house!!

The next afternoon, I went to the house on Moller Road pictured above.  When she met me at the door, she told me that she had never let anyone (reporters, fans, etc) in the house, but that the Good Lord told her to talk to me.  Not being particularly religious, I thought to myself that what she said was pretty neat, but that I didn't know if I actually believed it!  She showed me the house -- I got to see the bedroom where Frances convalesced. I looked out the window she used to look out of from bed to see her garden.  We settled in the family room and sat on a couch to talk.

Betty explained that Frances and Jean slowly became acquainted after Jean went to see her backstage to write the story of her life.  At first, Betty didn't like Frances because she was "crude,” though beautiful and very sharp witted.  Jean and Frances would sit around to see who could yell out game show answers first.  Jean and Betty considered suing whoever said that Frances had a lobotomy and even thought about exhuming the body to prove it, but Betty said it was pointless.  Mostly we talked about after Frances was sick - the last three months of her life.  She had trouble swallowing and didn't eat meat, then went to the doctor and was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.  She had to be fed through a tube in her side.  When Betty asked her one thing she would like to drink, she said iced tea, so they made gallons of it and she swished it around in her mouth to get the taste, and then spit it out.  She would frequently hemorrhage and it was "awful, with blood coming out of her mouth."  The last thing Frances told Jean as they carried her out and to the hospital was "don't let them stop the book." 

I was told Jean never talks to anyone because she is slandered, and that a few years before my visit, the local paper printed some nasty things about her.  After Frances' death she couldn't stand to stay in the house, and she lives in seclusion.  Betty (at the time of my visit) was renting it and wanted to buy it, but told me that the property had to be sold, all 200 acres.  After Betty moved in, she had a garage sale and sold a lot of stuff, but saved some.  I asked if Jean was happy, she said yes, but that not a day goes by she doesn't think of Frances.  She said that Frances never complained, never said "Why Me?"  They had 12 kittens, a dog named Sport, and a cat, Willie, who used to be wild, but they coaxed him onto the porch. 

Betty told me that Frances' mother was a "total nut."  Frances had a brother (Wes) she called "The Colonel," who she loved.  Her sister (Edith) still lived in Seattle and once, when Frances was in bed hemorrhaging, showed up and wanted to know where Frances' money was.  It was said that Edith had caused Jean and Betty a lot of trouble.

Betty said there was no lesbianism, and that those rumors are untrue.  Jean had slept on the floor next to Frances for three months while Frances was ill.  One day at the hospital, Frances was feeling amazingly better.  She told Jean to go home, feed the animals, and relax.  Jean came in, opened a can of cat food, and the phone rang.   Frances was dead.  Betty said that the really odd thing was that when they got to the hospital, there was no blood on the pillows.  They suspect that the hospital made a mistake on medication, but she told me "who questions a hospital?"

Betty told me that Frances was born 30 years before her time, and that Frances and Jean had genius IQ's.  She told me that Frances loved Jean's nieces and Betty's daughter, maybe because she had a few abortions.  She also told me that Jean wrote the whole book (Will There Really Be a Morning).  They did not like Shadowland  because it is "full of lies." 

Before I left, I thanked Betty profusely, and expressed that I never expected to be able to talk to someone who knew Frances so well.  She said she had something to give me, but I insisted that she already had given me more than I could have dreamed!  She was so kind and gave me a copper mug, which used to belong to Frances (she drank beer out of it).  I was more touched than I can express.  She also said that she thinks I would have grown to like Frances, had I ever met her.

After returning home to Virginia, I called one time to see how Betty was doing.  She had experienced some health problems, but seemed to be doing well. After that conversation, I realized that the time I had with her was more than I ever could have hoped for, and that I didn't want her to ever think I was a bother, so I didn't pursue an ongoing friendship with her.  A few summers later, I was in the area, and drove by the house.  It was vacant, and all of the windows were covered with thick plastic.  I guess the owner of the house finally got his way and decided to sell the whole 200 acres.

I never knew other people were interested in Frances Farmer, and spent the time between 1984 and now cherishing the memory of my experience, as well as the copper mug Betty gave me.  It was exciting to find a web site where other people are as interested in Frances' story as I am!

Exclusively presented for this web site, April 1999