Mother moved with daughters to Detroit where she worked in an automobile factory and operated a speakeasy after husband's desertion (date approximate)

Began career dancing on tabletops with her sister at her mother's bootleg bar in Lansing, Michigan at age three

Got first professional job as a singer at a Michigan summer resort at age 13; worked with a local band composed of high school students

Made brief, unsuccessful trip to New York to break into show business at age 15

Discovered by bandleader Vincent Lopez, singing at a Detroit nightclub; hired as vocalist with Lopez's band at $65 at week; used name of Betty Darling on tour (had previously been billed as Betty Jane Boyar)

Sister became a vocalist with the Glenn Miller band; both sisters changed their last name to Hutton

Professional singing debut with the Lopez band at Billy Rose's Casa Manana Club in Manhattan

Recording debut on Bluebird Records doing vocals with Vincent Lopez's band on "Igloo" and "The Jitterbug" and a duet with Sonny Shuyler on "Concert in the Park"

Screen debut in Vitaphone short, "Vincent Lopez and His Orchestra"; also appeared with Hal Sherman in Vitaphone short, "One For the Book" (1939) and with Hal LeRoy in "Public Jitterbug No. 1" (1939)

Made first short for Paramount, "Three Kings and a Queen"

Performed on Vincent Lopez's NBC radio program; toured vaudeville circuit with bandleader

Left Lopez's band; Broadway stage debut in revue, "Two For the Show"

Featured in the Cole Porter Broadway musical "Panama Hattie", starring Ethel Merman

Hired at $1,000 a week by "Panama Hattie" producer B G 'Buddy' DeSylva to make feature debut in Paramount musical, "The Fleet's In"

Named Star of Tomorrow by the MOTION PICTURE HERALD exhibitors' poll

Landed a comedy and singing job on radio's "The Bob Hope Show" (date approximate)

Became one of the first performers to be signed by songwriter Johnny Mercer for the newly formed Capitol Records

Appeared in first non-singing role, "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", directed by Preston Sturges

Renegotiated new contract with Paramount at $5,000 a week

Toured vaudeville circuit

Embarked on a two-month USO tour of the South Pacific

Starred in first dramatic role as Texas Guinan in "Incendiary Blonde"

Signed with RCA Victor records

Replaced an ailing Judy Garland as Annie Oakley in the film version of Irving Berlin's "Annie Get Your Gun"

Played the trapeze artist in Cecil B DeMille's "The Greatest Show on Earth"

After successful vaudeville engagement at the Palace Theatre in New York, underwent throat surgery and had to retrain her voice

Walked out of her Paramount contract (a year before it expired) when the studio refused to allow her husband Charles O'Curran to direct her vehicle "Topsy and Eva"; film was never made

Turned to successful vaudeville career

Returned to Capitol Records

TV debut as the star of the musical special, "Satins and Spurs" (NBC)

Announced retirement as a result of failure of TV special

Returned to film with "Spring Reunion" (her last film to date)

Starred as a manicurist on short-lived CBS sitcom, "Goldie" (retitled "The Betty Hutton Show")

Toured in a summer production of "Gypsy"

Returned to Broadway as Carol Burnett's replacement for one week in the musical, "Fade Out, Fade In"

Filed for bankruptcy

Moved into St Anthony's Rectory in Portsmouth, Rhode Island after entering a detox program; worked as a housekeeper--cooking, washing dishes and making beds at rectory; converted to Catholicism in the mid-1970s

Briefly resumed nightclub career

Made guest appearance on the ABC detective series "Baretta"

Hired to greet people at the door of a jai-alai playing field and establishment in Connecticut

Returned to Rhode Island to live

Returned to Broadway for two weeks playing Miss Hannigan in the hit musical "Annie"

Named a member of the faculty of Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island, teaching motion picture and TV classes

Collapsed while teaching; diagnosed with Epstein-Barr syndrome

Gave first major TV interview in nearly 20 years to Robert Osborne for the American Movie Classics series "Private Screenings"