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| Matching pair of velvet flower-embellished Betsy B bags, circa 1972-1974. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Special Post: The story of Betsy B Handbags
Betsy B of Fort Myers, Florida (often abbreviated to Ft. Myers) was in business from the mid-1960s until at least the early 1980s. Its designs remained fairly consistent—box or basket bags with millinery flowers, seashells, velvet trims, paint and/or decoupage, in a range of themes. The style could be described as typical kitschy Florida, but this aesthetic is what makes Betsy B bags such charming collectibles.
The story of Betsy B handbags has some interesting twists, including how many times it changed hands. While it’s not surprising that a number of handbag companies from the mid-century—as well as slightly earlier and later time frames—were bought and sold over the years (including Morris Moskowitz and Magid, about whom we also wrote articles), it’s unusual that such a relatively small establishment had multiple owners.
The first names we found in our search were Ralph and Evelyn Rycroft, who filed a fictitious business name statement for the Betsy B company in 1972. (A "fictitious name" or "DBA"—"Doing Business As"—typically needs to be filed with a city or county clerk's recording office, then published in a newspaper.) We contacted the Rycrofts’ son, Robert Rycroft, who shared some information with us via email.
“My father was born in Buffalo, NY. His father was a partner in Kencroft Malleable Company which produced malleable iron. My father spurned going to college because he wanted to go to work in the business. By the mid-1950s, the malleable iron market had tanked so they switched to being a warehouse—Kencroft Warehouse. My grandfather died in the mid-1960s and my father took over as head of the business,” wrote Robert Rycroft. “He ran it until the early 1970s when the warehouse market tanked so he sold the building, retired (it was an early retirement) and moved to Florida. My mother was born in the farm community of Bliss, NY. Upon graduation from high school she moved to Buffalo and went to work as a secretary at Kencroft. She and my father met at Kencroft, fell in love and got married. She became a housewife after marriage. My parents lived in Kenmore, NY and then moved to Grand Island, NY shortly after I was born. I was an only child. My parents’ first few years in Florida were as a completely retired couple. But then my father got restless and realized that they needed some more money coming in. He worked as a clerk in a boating supply store in Deerfield Beach, FL for a while. Then they moved to Fort Myers, FL. He then bought Betsy B—I think from Betsy. I visited the business once—it was an old barn or shed—and met one of the women who crafted the handbags.”
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| Interior of the Betsy B bags shown at the top of this post, with floral lining and mirrors. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Robert Rycroft explained to us that he didn’t know about the day-to-day operations of the company as he was working as a college professor and living in another state. His mother, Evelyn, passed away in 1979, and his father remarried a few years later. After Ralph’s second wife died, he moved to Virginia to be closer to Robert. Ralph Rycroft passed away in 2004.
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| Quail motif Betsy B bag, circa1972-1974. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Interior of quail-themed decoupage Betsy B bag shown above. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
The Vintage Purse Museum had a small but important clue from Robert Rycroft’s email. It was the name of the woman who became Ralph Rycroft’s second wife. We did some searching in the newspaper archives and almost immediately struck gold. Ralph Rycroft’s second wife, Betty Chaput, had been married to a man named Wilbert “Chappie” Chaput. We found a fictitious name statement that showed that the Chaputs had purchased the Betsy B company in 1974 from the Rycrofts.
We learned that the Rycrofts and the Chaputs had known each other in their small community in Ft. Myers, and that Ralph and Betty married several years after their spouses passed away.
We then found the Chaputs’ children online and sent an email. We asked if Betty had been the original owner in the 1960s as her maiden name began with a “B” (we thought perhaps it was a twist on the name “Betsy B”), and if she and her first husband Wilbert had reacquired it from the Rycrofts.
Our theory was wrong, but Don Chaput, one of the Chaputs’ children, graciously answered our email with a timeline of the business (below). We’ve edited it for brevity, and added a few notes of our own.
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| Top of a patriotic Betsy B box bag, likely made in 1976 for the US Bicentennial. The decoupage is lightly padded for a three-dimensional effect. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Front view of patriotic-themed bag above. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
1972 – Ralph (1921-2004) and Evelyn Rycroft (1922-1979) buy the Betsy B brand and manufacturing operation in Ft. Myers, Florida.
1974 – Wilbert (known as “Chap” or “Chappie,” 1921-1980) and Betty Chaput (1928-1998) acquire the Betsy B handbag company from the Rycrofts.
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| Back view of the patriotic-motif bag above. From the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
Sandals are added to the product line, including sandals that matched the handbags. The sandals were manufactured in Hialeah, Florida. Note from The Vintage Purse Museum: We discovered a 1977 newspaper article about the Chaputs’ former salesman, Marty Leonard, who'd had a heart attack and needed a pacemaker. Wilbert generously donated 600 pairs of sandals to the Sea Turtle specialty store to help raise money for Marty's medical expenses. Mr. and Mrs. Leonard were quoted as saying, "We are flabbergasted by Mr. Chaput's donation...we had no idea he planned anything like this."
According to Don Chaput, the business had expanded so much that his parents increased the manufacturing staff to eight to ten employees. The creative talent and designs came primarily from Wilbert, as well as in collaboration with Betsy B employees.
Betty managed the distribution and administration while Wilbert was responsible for the marketing and sales staff, and was the driving force behind the expansion of the business.
Don told us their products were sold in outlets such as the Kapok Tree Inn, Shell Factory and other Florida fashion, gift and tourist-focused retail stores. Marketing further expanded, with sales reps acquiring Midwest accounts, including Starved Rock Marina in Illinois and Lake Lawn Lodge in Wisconsin, as well as some West Coast retail outlets.
Wilbert Chaput passed away in 1980, and his widow Betty married Ralph Rycroft in 1982. Don thought his mother and Ralph still owned the company at this time, but The Vintage Purse Museum uncovered yet another fictitious name statement that showed that Jackie and John Corkhill either acquired or intended to acquire the company in 1981. We ran this info by Don Chaput, who told us he didn’t personally know of the Corkhills, so we're not exactly sure when the company closed its doors. We also reached out to the Corkhill family, but did not receive a response. We’ll update this article if we do.
Don’s timeline is very helpful in dating some of the Betsy B bags, as the design aesthetic overlaps somewhat throughout its ownership. We also found that the bags that were made when Ralph and Evelyn owned the company also had "Lyn-Croft Industries" atop the Betsy B mark on the labels, whereas the ones from the Chaputs’ era were only marked with the Betsy B name. Because of our knowledge of the sheer amount of production as well as the number of years that Wilbert and Betty put into the business, we can safely say that most Betsy B handbags were made during their time as owners.
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| Betsy B label with "Lyn-Croft Industries" name from when the Rycrofts owned the business, 1972-1974. Label from bag in the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
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| Betsy B label from when the Chaputs owned the business, 1974-198?) Label from bag in the collection of The Vintage Purse Museum. |
At this point in our research we still wondered… who was the mysterious original Betsy B?
On yet another mission, The Vintage Purse Museum’s curator went through a newspaper archive using the time parameters 1950-1969, and place, Ft. Myers, Florida, with the name "Betsy" in the keyword search box. Our curator then made a list of potential Betsys, and started with one that sounded promising: Mrs. Elizabeth "Betsy" Beemer, whose parents Elizabeth and Harvey Richards owned a plastics manufacturing company. We thought it was possible that a prominent family that already had an established business may have had a side gig as a handbag company.
We found Betsy’s son, Bill Beemer, who confirmed that his mom was indeed the original Betsy B!
Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Richards was born in Illinois in 1922, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth Patch Richards and Harvey Bennett Richards. Betsy married George Beemer in 1943. They had two children, Deborah and Bill.
Betsy Beemer at far left in 1949 newspaper photo.
We spoke with Bill Beemer over the phone and he shared some memories. He also emailed photos of his mother’s handbag labels so that they could help us with the dating of Betsy B bags.
Per a 1966 newspaper article announcing the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Betsy’s parents, Harvey was owner of Richards and Associates, manufacturer of plastic closet accessories and rainwear. Prior to that he and his family were in the cattle ranching business.
The Richards/Beemer family was very civic-minded and belonged to numerous organizations and charitable groups in or near the Ft. Myers area.
George Beemer was a graduate of Admiral Farragut Academy, Cornell University and the US Coast Guard Academy, and served during WWII. George and Betsy moved to Ft. Myers in 1946, and were joined a few years later by Betsy's parents.
Betsy Beemer, a graduate of the University of Connecticut, was an avid golfer and had a great love of fishing and shell-collecting. She enjoyed making bonsai tree displays and was a painter.
How she came about starting the Betsy B handbag company is a bit of a mystery as her son Bill was very young at the time and doesn’t know its precise origins. However, while getting ready to format this article for our website, The Vintage Purse Museum discovered a newspaper article that said the Betsy B of Florida name originated with a clothing line started by Harvey Richards at his plastics plant.
1964 article announcing the "Betsy B of Florida" jumper line, with photo of Betsy Beemer and her daughter Deborah modeling mother-daughter sets.
We concluded that Betsy must've had her parents blessing to create her line of handbags using this brand. Bill recalled that she had five to ten employees in a shop on Alicia St. in Ft. Myers. We found a 1972 article about a city charter being given to various companies, and one was Lyn-Croft industries located at 2137 1/2 Alicia St. This warehouse, built in 1957, is now a pest control company (per Google searches) and may be the location of Betsy's original operation, which the Rycrofts took over after purchasing the company.
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| Betsy B labels from when Betsy Beemer owned the Betsy B company. Photo courtesy of Betsy's son Bill Beemer, who kept these labels as cherished mementos. |
Among Bill Beemer’s childhood memories are his mother decorating, painting and decoupaging bags and umbrellas. He also distinctly remembers clear plastic flowers that were dipped in gold paint. Another memory is that of helping his father load cardboard boxes full of Betsy B handbags into their station wagon to bring to the post office to ship to retail stores.
Betsy worked full-time in the business until she and George moved to Alexandria, Virginia in 1972, which jibes with when the Rycrofts purchased the company.
The couple moved back to Florida in 1974, and Betsy Beemer eventually became a real estate agent. Her beloved George died in July of 2012 and Betsy passed away just one month later.
As with many of the handbag articles The Vintage Purse Museum researches and writes, we often wonder if the owners of the company could have foreseen the longevity of their products. We can’t know for sure with Betsy B, but we hope their children and grandchildren are pleased to know that their relatives' work is still appreciated by vintage handbag collectors all over the world.
Special thanks to Don Chaput and his siblings, to Robert Rycroft and to Bill Beemer for taking the time to help us with this story. Credit also to Newspapers.com and MyHeritage.com, to which The Vintage Purse Museum has paid subscriptions, and to Google searches. This article c2022 by Wendy Dager/The Vintage Purse Museum. Please do not reprint any content or use photos without requesting permission, info@vintagepursemuseum.com.
14 Aug 1979, Tue Daily Republican-Register (Mount Carmel, Illinois) Newspapers.com
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