Betty Hester
American correspondent (1923–1998)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hazel Elizabeth Hester (June 1, 1923 – December 26, 1998)[1] was an American correspondent of influential twentieth-century writers, including Flannery O'Connor and Iris Murdoch.[2] Hester wrote several short stories, poems, diaries, and philosophical essays, none of which were published.[3]
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Betty Hester | |
|---|---|
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| Born | June 1, 1923 Rome, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | December 26, 1998 (aged 75) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Occupation | American correspondent |
Life
Hester was born in Rome, Georgia, and attended Young Harris College.[2] She lived and worked in Atlanta before joining the U.S. Air Force in 1948.[4] After five years in the service she had risen to the rank of technical sergeant[4] and was stationed in Wiesbaden, Germany, after World War II (c. 1948–53).[4] She was discharged as "undesirable" for being a lesbian.[4] After her discharge from the Air Force,[5] she returned to Georgia.[4] Hester spent most of her life in a small Midtown Atlanta apartment.[3] She worked for an Atlanta-based retail credit company (Equifax), commuting every day by bus.[2][4] She struggled with alcoholism and bouts of depression[4] but kept her sexual orientation a secret except to her closest friends.[4]
Hester is best known for her nine-year correspondence and friendship with Southern fiction writer Flannery O'Connor.[5] From 1955 to 1964, Hester and O'Connor exchanged nearly 300 letters, some of which are published in Sally Fitzgerald's 1979 compilation of O'Connor's correspondence, The Habit of Being.[3] Hester, a very private and reclusive woman, asked that her identity be kept secret in the published letters; thus, she appears as "A".[3][6]
Hester first wrote to O'Connor in July 1955,[7] when O'Connor was working on her second novel, The Violent Bear it Away.[8][3] Eager to exchange thoughts and ideas with someone of equal intellectual caliber, O'Connor wrote back: "I would like to know who this is who understands my stories."[7] O'Connor felt that she and Hester shared a spiritual kinship,[7] and O'Connor would later become Hester's confirmation sponsor in the Catholic Church.[9] Hester left the Church in 1961[10] and turned to agnosticism.[citation needed] This news was a grave disappointment for O'Connor,[11] who had engaged Hester in theological dialogues and tried to sustain her friend's faith.[citation needed]
Death and legacy
Hester gave her letters to Emory University in 1987 on the condition that they be sealed for twenty years.[3] They were released to the public on May 12, 2007.[2]
Like her mother, Hester died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on December 26, 1998, in Atlanta, at the age of 75.[4]