Elisabeth "Betsy" Higgins Headley Garr was born on December 22, 1885 to parents Joseph Carter Headley and Alline Higgins Headley in Fayette County, Kentucky. She was the first child for the couple, and would later be joined by a sister, Frances Carter Headley. Betsy attended high school at the Sayre Institute in Lexington, Kentucky, the same school her mother had gone too. After her time at Sayre was complete, she went to a boarding school in Hollins, Virginia called the Hollins Institute. Hollins was first established in 1842 as Valley Union Seminary. By the time Elisabeth attended in the first decade of the 20th century, the school had became the Hollins Institute and was an all female college. The school still exists today, and in it's current iteration is known as Hollins University. 

 After her schooling at Hollins, Betsy went to work at National Park Seminary, an all girls school in Washington D.C. While this school no longer exists, parts of the campus remain. It is often remembered for it's unique sorority houses, built in international architectural styles, including a Dutch windmill and Japanese pagoda. By the start of the 1920s, it seems that Betsy had returned to her hometown of Lexington and it was there in 1921 that she married Charles Crain Garr. Together, the couple had two daughters, Elisabeth "Betty" Headley Garr and Charlotte Russell Garr.  Throughout her life Betsy was interested in geneaology, and became a member of the Colonial Dames. She was also a long time member of the First Presbyterian Church in Lexington. Elisabeth passed away on November 19, 1961 in Washington D.C. at the age of 75. She is buried in the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. 

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