Betty was born in Pocatello, ID the daughter of the late Fred A. Corwin and Anna Berniece Vogeli. She attended schools in Idaho and California before graduating high school in San Francisco in December 1941. While offered a full scholarship to the University of California, she chose to help family finances by working for the Pacific Telephone Company. She worked for the California Department of Motor Vehicles in the early 1950's. After marrying the late Ray Stimson, they started their own recreational boat business in the Bay Area.