Betty Litchfield lived almost her entire life at Coolringdon, a property near Cooma which has been owned by her family since 1908. She lived briefly in Sydney at a finishing school where Dorothea Mackellar was a tutor and otherwise was absent from the property only while travellling in Australia or overseas. Litchfield was passionate about Coolringdon, its management and its domestic life. (Coolringdon continues to be managed as a pastoral enterprise by Litchfield's trustees and the profits of The John and Betty Casey Research Trust are directed to research and education relating to the rural industries of the Monaro.)
From a young age, Litchfield spent considerable time in writing poetry; her inspiration derived from the Monaro landscape. During her lifetime she published six volumes of poetry.
Litchfield was married twice - to John Casey who died in 1976 and to James F. Litchfield who died in 1981.
Source: Obituary by Trish Dixon, published in The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 1999.
