Elizabeth "Betty" Catherine Irvine was born 9 March 1855 in Danville, TX to Peter Belles Irvine and Minerva Tabor. On 7 May 1872 she married William Fielding Spiller and the couple had twelve children, ten of whom lived to adulthood.

In the novel, "Diamond Six", written by William Fielding Smith, Betty Irvine joined Thomas Wesley Smith in defending Danville from the Yankees during the Civil War. She was very angry that her father had been killed in the Battle of Arkansas Post and strongly disliked "damnyankees." He declared that she was the "hero of the Battle of Danville".

She died on 18 September 1943 in Conroe, TX.