Francis Getty Bentley was born March 17, 1910 in Kalkaska, Antrim County, Michigan. He was the son of Frances "Fanny" (Getty) and Harry Bentley.

On February 15, 1936, he married Katharine Elizabeth Westcott in Hancock, Houghton County, Michigan. They had three children:

  1. George William Bentley

  2. James Robert Bentley

  3. Patricia Westcott Bentley

Francis moved to Kentucky in the 1940s but returned to Houghton, Michigan to run the Bentley Lumber Company in 1947. By 1950, he was back in Kentucky.

He died in July of 1982 in Kentucky at the age of 72.