Nina Byron

Nina Clarice Betts was born on 27 July 1900 in Christchurch. 

Her parents, George Arthur Betts and Grace Goodman (born 1979) had married earlier the same year.

There is little in the public record about them. In October 1905 the Christchurch City Council successfully claimed £3 from George and Mrs Grace Betts.1 A year later George Betts was fined 10s in the Christchurch Magistrates’ Court for having been drunk while in charge of a horse and cart in Chester St.

In 1909 the partnership of George Arthur Betts and George Parkin was dissolved in Wellington by mutual consent, with all accounts to be paid to Parkin.

Nina Betts was awarded a “second-Class Certificate” in Standard IV at the Te Aro School end of year event in
December 1911.

A “Mrs Grace Betts, Elocutionist” recited “New Year’s Eve” in a concert in aid of “Sister Esther’s work among the aged, the sick, and the destitute of the city” (ie, Auckland) in June 1914.

Some time in 1915 or 1916 Grace Betts left her husband and took Nina to New York.