There Really Are No Words: Betty White Has Died At 99

December 31, 2021 / Posted by:

Actually, there are some words and those words are: Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck YOU, 2021!

TMZ says that just a few hours before 2021 ends over here in the US, we got one huge kick to the core of souls. Because universal treasure Betty White has died just two weeks before her 100th birthday. This isn’t a horrible hoax either. Betty’s agent confirms the news to People. Like all of our hearts, every cheesecake in the world has deflated.

Sources tell TMZ that Betty died this morning just before 9:30. It felt like it was just yesterday (and it kind of was) when a smiling Betty White was on the cover of People Magazine to celebrate turning 100 on January 17. So yeah, many of us are throwing side-eyes of blame at People Magazine. But it’s every kind of sad knowing that we’re living in a world without Betty White because she’s been in many of our lives for most of our lives, if not for all of our lives.

Betty Marion White’s amazing life began on January, 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. Her family moved to Alhambra, CA a year later and she went to Beverly Hills High School. At first, she wanted to be a forest ranger but women weren’t allowed to be forest rangers at the time. So she decided to get into writing and that led to her discovering that she really wanted to be an actress. But she put her career on pause to serve in the American Women’s Voluntary Services stateside during World War II. Betty regularly performed for the troops before they were deployed overseas.

When the war ended, she married U.S. Army Air Force pilot Dick Barker and moved to his parents’ chicken farm in Ohio. Betty and Dick’s marriage ended after 8 months and she went back to Los Angeles. Betty mostly worked in radio. She married theatrical agent Lane Allen in 1947 but they split two years later when he asked her to leave show business. Thank all the Gods that she did not!

Betty’s big break happened in 1949 when she was cast as Al Jarvis’ co-host on the TV variety show Hollywood On Television. After Al Jarvis left the show, Betty hosted it herself and was one of the first women to host a TV show solo. It got Betty her first Emmy nomination in 1951. From 1953 to 1955, Betty starred in her first sitcom Life with Elizabeth, which she created and produced. A woman never did that back then. During that time, Betty also had a talk show, The Betty White Show, and when people in the South complained about her featuring tap dancer Arthur Duncan, who is Black, she let out a response that I want to get crotcheted onto a pillow:

Here’s Trailblazing Betty talking about her early days on TV:

Throughout the 1960s, Betty continued to grace television screens on game shows and talk shows. It was on one of those game shows, Password, where she met the love of her life Allen Ludden. Allen was the host of Password. They got married in 1963 and were together until his death in 1981.

In 1973, Betty began playing icon to all of us trollops, Sue Ann Nevins, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Betty played Sue Ann in 46 episodes. In her 2011 book If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t), Betty writes that she was only supposed to be on The Mary Tyler Moore Show for one episode, but everyone wanted more of that mess Sue Ann! via Deadline:

“Sue Ann was a huge career mood change,” White says of the character she lovingly refers to as the “neighborhood nymphomaniac” in her 2011 book If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). “The Mary Tyler Moore Show aired for seven years altogether. I came on in the fourth season, in what was to have been a one-shot appearance. The most episodes I ever did during one season was 12 of 22—the other seasons, I did only 5 or 6 episodes. But people still remember Sue Ann. She was such a mess!”

Betty won two Emmys for playing Sue Ann.

Betty White’s entire career was a golden era, but for me, her GOLDEN golden era was the 1980s, and I’m not totally making a Golden Girls pun. Because before Betty joined one of the greatest TV shows ever made, she was on Mama’s Family. Betty played Mama’s snobby eldest child Ellen Harper-Jackson. Here she is opposite her future Golden Girls co-star Rue McClanahan who played Mama’s younger sister Fran:

And then came The Golden Girls. Anyone who has their Bachelor’s in Golden Girls knows that Betty was originally offered Blanche and Rue was originally offered Rose, but Jay Sandrich, the director of the pilot, suggested they switch roles since they played similar characters in the past (Sue Ann for Betty and Vivan from Maude for Rue). And magic was made!

The Golden Girls’ reign began in 1985 and ended in 1992 when Bea Arthur decided to leave the show. The Golden Girls’ reign is still going because it’s timeless TV. It will forever be an anti-depressant to me because it never fails to take me to a happy place. Playing Rose Nyland got Betty 7 Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series Emmy nominations and she won in 1986. Betty also played Rose in episodes of Empty Nest and Nurses.

When the Golden Girls ended, Betty, Rue, and Estelle Getty starred in the spin-off series The Golden Palace, which ran for one season. Betty went on to guest star on Suddenly Susan, The Practice, The John Laroquette Show, The Bold and the Beautiful, Boston Legal, Ally McBeal, The Simpsons, That ’70s Show, and The Middle. Betty also starred in the movies The Proposal and Toy Story 4. And of course, there’s Hot In Cleveland, Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, and Saturday Night LIve:

Throughout her career, Betty was nominated for a total of 21 Emmys and won 5 times.

And it would be ILLEGAL to not mention Betty’s work at protecting and helping animals. Betty worked closely with The Morris Foundation since the 1970s, and also supported the African Wildlife Foundation, Farm Sanctuary, and the SPCLA.

So when you pray before your St. Betty White candle, make sure your pet joins you!

I said in my headline above that there are not many words, but that’s not true. I could write many more words on Betty White. There aren’t many famous people who you can’t really say anything bad about and Betty White was one of them. So that’s why this loss is especially hard. And since Betty was the last-living Golden Girl, I am jealous of the angels who are getting the reunion of all reunions.

Rest in peace, Betty White.

Pic: Getty

Our commenting rules: Don't be racist or bigoted, or post comments like "Who cares?", or have multiple accounts, or repost a comment that was deleted by a mod, or post NSFW pics/videos/GIFs, or go off topic when not in an Open Post, or post paparazzi/event/red carpet pics from photo agencies due to copyright infringement issues. Also, promoting adblockers, your website, or your forum is not allowed. Breaking a rule may result in your Disqus account getting permanently or temporarily banned. New commenters must go through a period of pre-moderation. And some posts may be pre-moderated so it could take a minute for your comment to appear if it's approved. If you have a question or an issue with comments, email: michaelk@dlisted.com

src="https://c.statcounter.com/922697/0/f674ac4a/1/"
alt="drupal analytics" >