Betty DeGeneres

Did You Know?

• She performed in college plays with Joanne Woodward, who later became an Academy Award-winning actress.
• She appeared as an extra in 'The Puppy Episode' of the sitcom Ellen, the episode where her daughter's character came out.

Life and career

Betty DeGeneres was the youngest of three girls, born in New Orleans in 1930 during the Great Depression. Her father had German roots, her mother Irish. While her older sisters Helen and Audrey weren't around much when she was a teenager, they grew close later on. She studied speech language pathology at Louisiana State University for two years, aiming to become a speech therapist, and acted in college plays alongside future Oscar winner Joanne Woodward.

In 1952 she married Elliott DeGeneres; they split in 1974. Soon after, she married Roy Gruessendorf, who relocated the family to Texas. Shortly into that marriage, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. That marriage ended in the early 1990s, and Gruessendorf died in 1997.

In 2005, her daughter Ellen publicly revealed that she had been molested by her stepfather as a teen. After turning 50, Betty returned to LSU to earn a master's degree in speech pathology. She wrote two books: Love, Ellen: A Mother Daughter Journey and Just a mother, detailing her shift from quiet acceptance of Ellen coming out to active LGBTQ advocacy, as well as the media attention that followed. She also penned an advice column, "Ask Betty," for the now-defunct PlanetOut.

She appeared as an extra in the famous coming-out episode of the sitcom Ellen, and was a frequent audience member on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She survived breast cancer and spoke openly about it. In Ellen's 2024 Netflix special For Your Approval, she shared that Betty had been diagnosed with dementia.