Sometime in 1955 Senator Robert Kennedy instructed (Cary) Estes Kefauver to head the Senate Obscenity Investigation Committee. This was set up to investigate Irving Klaw's mail order business. Although the state never had a case against Klaw it did create a big scandal and forced Irving Klaw to close his business and destroy most of his negatives, but not before his sister Paula had the presence of mind to secretly save a lot of photos, mainly of Bettie.    Bettie was called, unwillingly, to the court to give evidence, but never gave an account after being kept in the courthouse all day, from 9 am to 1 am the following morning, and no one told her that the courthouse had cleared and everyone had gone home. Irving Klaw's mail order bondage photos were not pornographic because they did not involve nudity. An associate of Klaw is quoted as saying: "He never showed a boob - ever!!"

A few years later, about 1959, she left Armand, attending bible colleges in places such as Chicago, LA and Portland Oregon. Her traveling was financed by a series of secretarial jobs, finally she arrived back in Tennessee where she remarried Billy Neal, but this only lasted a short time. 1966 saw Bettie's return to Florida there she met and married her third husband in 1967, one Harry Lear.  They were divorced in 1972. Bettie remained in Florida living in Harry's house at Hialeah until 1978, then she moved out to California moving in with her brother Jimmie