The day has come. Betty White has passed away. Maybe she saw something about 2022 that none of us have seen and locked those old brakes up? White was less than a month away from her centennial birthday.
Betty White was born, Betty Marion White on January 17th, 1922. She has been in the business since “Time to Kill” in 1945. Ever since then she was a Hollywood staple. White appeared in some of the most influential shows of all time. She played Sue Ann Nivens on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. She even had her own show “The Betty White Show.”
Her career never stopped. She made many appearances on “The Love Boat” and “Mama’s Family.” And of course, “The Golden Girls” where she played the beloved dimwit, Rose.
As a child I knew her from The Golden Girls. I would also see her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I remember being drawn to her. She was magnetic. When she hit the screen, wow! You just couldn’t stop watching her. Betty would light up the screen (small or big) with her perfected comic timing and radiant smile.
She never stopped working. White may have faded into the background a bit, but she was what I would call a cultural enigma.
White stayed relevant with her generation all the way to Gen Z. Not many seniors, let me rephrase that. Not many stars can pull the longevity and universal love that Betty White commanded.
Just when most stars have been in retirement, Betty resurged her career in the hit show “Hot in Cleveland” in 2010 with her costars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick. That’s right! At the young age of 89 years, she reinvented herself again captivating a whole new generation of people.
She even showed up on an episode of WWE’s Monday Night Raw in 2014. She got around.
Betty White was one of those celebrities that you think of as immortal. The thought of her dying never really passed through your mind. I know it didn’t in my own. Maybe it was just hard to think of a world without her.
One thing I can say for sure about her is that there will never be another and she will never be forgotten.
Thank you for everything Betty.