Betty Lou Bumpers (née Flanagan; January 11, 1925 – November 23, 2018) was an American politician, advocate for childhood immunizations, and world peace activist, who served as the First Lady of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975.

[3][4] Bumpers was born in the Grand Prairie community in Franklin County, Arkansas, to salesman and auctioneer Herman Edward "Babe" Flanagan and his wife, the former Ola Callans, a teacher.

[5][6] She grew up in Franklin County, except for a period during World War II when her family lived in Fort Smith and in the state of Iowa.

[5] After studying at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and Iowa State University,[7] she taught elementary school.

[3][4] Dale Bumpers entered the U.S. Senate in 1975, and the couple moved to Washington, D.C.[9] Two years later, when Jimmy Carter arrived in Washington as the new President, Betty Bumpers sought his support for a nationwide program of childhood immunization and enlisted the assistance of First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

[4][9] A 1981 conversation with her college-student daughter Brooke inspired Bumpers to become a peace activist, focused on ending the nuclear weapons race.

[9] The realization her daughter considered nuclear war to be a real threat to her future motivated Bumpers to start a campaign for peace.

[9][12] After discussing the matter with her fellow Senate wives and other like-minded women in Washington, Bumpers decided to work to bring mainstream American women into the campaign for a nuclear weapons freeze, building on her earlier experience with grassroots volunteer activism.