1. Bettina Edith Gorton, Lady Gorton was an American-born Australian academic who was best known as the first wife of John Gorton, the 19th Prime Minister of Australia.
24 Facts About Bettina Gorton
1. 2.
Bettina Gorton was born in Portland, Maine, and met her husband while studying in France.
3.
Bettina Gorton developed an interest in South-East Asian culture relatively late in life, learning to speak Malay and Javanese and completing her first university degree at the age of 50.
4.
Bettina Gorton's father died when she was two years old and her mother returned to her home state of Maine.
5.
Bettina Gorton attended Bangor High School and the University of Maine, although she did not graduate from the latter.
6.
Bettina Gorton married Gorton on 15 February 1935, at St Giles Church, Oxford, and after his studies were finished they returned to his father's orchard near Kerang, Victoria.
7.
Bettina Gorton's mother Grace Brown came to live with them, and she later revealed that her son Arthur, Bettina's brother and John Gorton's closest friend from Oxford, was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.
8.
Bettina Gorton entered Federal Parliament in 1950, as a Senator for Victoria, and was often away in Canberra on parliamentary business.
9.
Campbell alleged that Bettina Gorton senior had given the shares to her.
10.
In 1968, John Bettina Gorton became Prime Minister and they moved into The Lodge.
11.
Bettina Gorton was the first foreign-born prime minister's wife since Dame Mary Cook.
12.
Bettina Gorton oversaw a number of restoration projects, and arranged for the building of the prominent white brick security wall around the property, and established a garden of Australian native plants in the grounds.
13.
Bettina Gorton was generally a low-profile prime ministerial spouse, but there were some significant exceptions.
14.
Bettina Gorton exhibited her personal collection of batik at The Lodge, and in June 1968 gave a lecture on Indonesian art and culture for the benefit of the Canberra Press Gallery.
15.
Bettina Gorton had believed herself to be ineligible to vote, as an American citizen.
16.
Bettina Gorton had attended a dinner at the American Embassy in Canberra, accompanied not by his wife, but by Geraldine Willesee, the daughter of a Labor senator, Don Willesee.
17.
Bettina Gorton adapted a poem by William Watson, which she headed "Comment on Current Events":.
18.
In 1960, Bettina Gorton accompanied her husband on an official visit to Sarawak, which sparked an interest in oriental languages and cultures.
19.
Bettina Gorton graduated with honours in Oriental Studies in 1965, and began working as a part-time research assistant on an English-Malay dictionary.
20.
Bettina Gorton was diagnosed with cancer in 1974 but was treated successfully.
21.
Bettina Gorton lectured part-time at ANU, and eventually completed a Master of Arts, writing her dissertation on the Indonesian author and playwright Achdiat Karta Mihardja.
22.
Bettina Gorton visited his birthplace in Java in 1977, conducting a series of interviews with people who had known him.
23.
John Gorton was knighted in 1977, and Bettina became Lady Gorton.
24.
Bettina Gorton died, aged 68, on 2 October 1983, at Royal Canberra Hospital.