{{Short description|Scottish traveller, tradition-bearer, folksinger, and storyteller (1919–1988)}} '''Betsy Whyte''', née '''Townsley''' (1919–1988), was a Scottish traveller. She was an accomplished singer<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Tobar an Dualchais |url=https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/3523?l=en |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=Tobar an Dualchais |language=en}}</ref> and a noted virtuoso of traditional Scottish storytelling.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Munro |first=Ailie |date=1991 |title=The Role of the School of Scottish Studies in the Folk Music Revival |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4522373 |journal=Folk Music Journal |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=132–168 |jstor=4522373 |issn=0531-9684}}</ref> Recordings of her performances are held in the permanent collection of the School of Scottish Studies, part of the University of Edinburgh.<ref name=":2" /> She wrote her autobiography in two parts: ''Yellow on the Broom'', published in 1979, and its sequel, ''Red Rowans and Wild Honey,'' published posthumously in 1990.
== Life == Whyte was born in 1919 in Old Rattray, a suburb of Blairgowrie. She was awarded a scholarship to Brechin High School, where she was the only Romani pupil.<ref name=":0" />
She married Bryce Whyte, another traveller, in 1939. Bryce served with the Seaforth Highlanders during the war, but he was invalided out of the army in 1943.<ref name=":0" /> The couple moved to the fishing village of Usan, near Montrose. They later moved to Ferryden, and then into central Montrose.
Whyte was recorded by several different folklorists from the School of Scottish Studies between 1973 and 1988, including Linda Williamson.<ref name=":0" /> She and other traditional storytellers frequently visited the School of Scottish Studies.<ref name=":2" /> The School holds 331 separate recordings of Betsy Whyte performing songs, traditional tales, stories of the supernatural, and riddles, and recounting customs and beliefs, traveller cant, and biography.
''The Muckle Sangs'' LP (1975) included two of her performances of ballads, ''The Twa Sisters'' (Child 10) and ''Young Johnstone'' (Child 88).<ref name=":0" />
== Significance == The Scots Magazine called Whyte's autobiography, ''Yellow on the Broom'', "a minor classic".<ref name=":0" />
Her significance as a storyteller was that she was a traditional storyteller from the Traveller community<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sobol |first=Joseph |date=2018 |title=Long-Form Storytelling Performance |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/storselfsoci.14.1.0001 |journal=Storytelling, Self, Society |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=1–8 |doi=10.13110/storselfsoci.14.1.0001 |jstor=10.13110/storselfsoci.14.1.0001 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> rather than a member of the revival movement. She was also largely an oral storyteller, able to retain and construct the story in her head before writing it down.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lanters |first=José |date=2005 |title="We Are a Different People": Life Writing, Representation, and the Travellers |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20646488 |journal=New Hibernia Review / Iris Éireannach Nua |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=25–41 |jstor=20646488 |issn=1092-3977}}</ref> She was the only recorded source on the Scottish mainland of a Gaelic story, ''The Vision of Mac Con Glinne,'' and had several Gaelic stories in her repertoire.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Hillers |first=Barbara |date=2019 |title=Lizards, Snakes and the Demon of Gluttony: Oral Lore and Literature in the "Vision of Mac Con Glinne" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45373692 |journal=Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium |volume=39 |pages=1–38 |jstor=45373692 |issn=1545-0155}}</ref>
She was also significant as a singer of Scottish ballads by virtue of her personal connection to them; she was related to the Johnstone family of ''Young Johnstone'' (Child 88), which she performed in 1974.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Niles |first1=John D. |last2=Long |first2=Eleanor R. |date=1986 |title=Context and Loss in Scottish Ballad Tradition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1500038 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=83–109 |doi=10.2307/1500038 |jstor=1500038 |issn=0043-373X|url-access=subscription |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Recordings of her performances are held in the permanent collection of the School of Scottish Studies, part of the University of Edinburgh.<ref name=":2" />
== Books == * {{cite book|author=Whyte, Betsy|title=The Yellow on the Broom: The Early Days of a Traveller Woman|place=Edinburgh|publisher=W. and R. Chambers|date= 1979}} * {{cite book|author=Whyte, Betsy|title=Red Rowans and Wild Honey|place=Edinburgh|publisher=Canongate|date=1990}})
== Recordings == * [https://mapofstories.scot/the-story-of-the-pupil-of-the-black-arts/ The Story of the Laird of the Black Arts]<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Map of Stories: Betsy Whyte |url=https://mapofstories.scot/storyteller/betsy-whyte/ |access-date=2022-10-27}}</ref> * [https://mapofstories.scot/the-story-of-the-two-brothers/ The Story of the Two Brothers] <ref name=":1" /> The School of Scottish Studies made [https://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/search?l=en&term=%22Whyte%2C+Betsy%2C+1919-1988+%283523%29%22&type=archival_object 331 recordings of Betsy Whyte].
== In popular culture == The song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFb2hXEpN8 ''Yellow on the Broom'', by Adam McNaughtan], on his album ''Words, Words, Words'' (1983), is based on the book.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=The Yellow on the Broom [Adam McNaughtan] (Roud 22006) |url=https://mainlynorfolk.info/folk/songs/yellowonthebroom.html |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=mainlynorfolk.info}}</ref> The song was also performed by Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise on their album ''Reaching Out'' (1986); Sheena Wellington on her album ''Clearsong'' (1990); Jean Redpath on her album ''Summer of my Dreams'' (2000); Gordon Easton on his album ''The Last of the Clydesdales'' (2007); and by Claire Hastings and Robyn Stapleton on their 2015 tour.<ref name=":4" />
The 1989 play ''[http://www.filmrights.ltd.uk/Downie.htm Yellow on the Broom]'', by Ann Downie, was based on the book, and was performed in 2018 at the Dundee Rep Theatre.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-09-04 |title=Theatre review: The Yellow On The Broom, Dundee Rep |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/theatre-and-stage/theatre-review-yellow-broom-dundee-rep-1426136 |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=www.scotsman.com |language=en}}</ref>
Betsy Whyte's great-grandson, David Pullar, has produced a children's book about her life, entitled ''Wee Bessie''. It is based on her book, ''Yellow on the Broom''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New children's book tells story of famous Scottish traveller |url=https://www.thenational.scot/news/18019362.new-childrens-book-tells-story-scottish-traveller-betsy-whyte/ |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=The National |language=en}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Whyte, Betsy}} Category:1919 births Category:1998 deaths Category:People from Blairgowrie and Rattray Category:People from Montrose, Angus Category:People educated at Brechin High School Category:Women storytellers Category:20th-century Scottish women singers Category:British storytellers Category:20th-century Scottish autobiographers Category:Romani women Category:Scottish women autobiographers Category:Scottish Romani people Category:20th-century storytellers