Gettys was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-eighth and to the Eighty-ninth Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Robert W. Hemphill, and reelected to the four succeeding Congresses (November 3, 1964 – December 31, 1974). He resigned on December 31, 1974. He was not a candidate for reelection to the Ninety-fourth Congress in 1974. He died on June 8, 2003, in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He was interred in Neely's Creek Associate Reformed Church Cemetery, Rock Hill, South Carolina.