Why We Love Betty White & How She Makes Us Feel Younger

Betty White was born in Oak Park, Illinois on January 17, 1922. She has been in show business since before I was born. She has had a very interesting life and possesses a great outlook on life as demonstrated through her sense of humor and her most recent celebration of her 90th birthday. We should all hope to be as fortunate with both longevity and level of productivity.

Betty was an only child. Her father, Horace, was an electrical engineer and her mother, Tess, was a homemaker. When Betty was still a toddler, her family moved to California.

Betty is also an animal rights activist and for many of us who have seen photos or interviews of her over the years even prior to losing her husband, Allen Ludden, it's apparent she is devoted to her passion for animals. For over 40 years, she has been involved with the Los Angeles Zoo and the Morris Animal Foundation and on the foundation's home page, you can see an image of Betty with a request to send her birthday wishes along with your donation.

BETTY WHITE, THE WIFE

Betty was married three times, although she was married to the love of her life with third husband and widower, Allen Ludden, the popular game show host of Password. Betty and Allen met when she was a guest on Password in 1961. Betty and Allen married in 1963 and were together for 18 years until he unexpectedly died in 1981 from stomach cancer. Allen passed away just three days before their 18th wedding anniversary.

BETTY WHITE, THE AUTHOR

Betty is also the author of several books which are listed below:

Betty White In Person (1987)

Here We Go Again: My Life in Television (1995; re-released in 2010)

If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won't) (2011)

Betty's book entitled, The Zoo and I: Betty and Her Friends (2012), is due to come out this year.

Betty started her career working in local television. She would have appearances on sitcoms and game show programming. Many of us, however, will best remember her for her roles on The Mary Tyler Moore and The Golden Girls shows for television. Her character on The Mary Tyler Moore show was Sue Ann Nivens where her audience were able to witness her own personal style of humor alongside her smiling eyes. Betty's performances on this show that began in 1970 would land her two Emmy awards. Her role on The Golden Girls, my mom's favorite show, would reveal a different character by the name of Rose. Her audience was either endeared or annoyed with how naive she was, but regardless, her wit brought laughter. I think this show's popularity was due to the fact it was based on the friendships and relationships of four older women (Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty). Older people in the viewing audience, which included my mom, had a program they could relate with. This show would earn yet another Emmy award for Betty.

In 1992, The Golden Girls was concluding its long run on television. Betty continued to have guest starring roles on television and in 2009, she had a supporting role in a romantic comedy movie entitled, Proposal, which was a delightful mix of acting styles including that of Sandra Bullock. I enjoyed this movie, but I'm also a Bullock fan.

Then, all of a sudden, a popularity pow reached Betty's life again. There was an ad which was run during the Superbowl game in 2010 and it was Betty's style of humor that gained so much attention. People who saw the candy ad were still talking about it the next day and people who didn't see the game were hearing about it from others. Continuing on, a man from San Antionio began a campaign on Facebook to have Betty host Saturday Night Live and thousands of people responded making this request a reality. Although Betty made statements about how nervous she was with this adventure, she pulled it off. Then another campaign ran on Facebook to get Betty to host the Oscars. Betty also began another sitcom in 2010, Hot in Cleveland also starring Valerie Bertinelli.

^{Source for cast photos: http://www.photobucket.com}

Hats off to Betty for her long career that amazes so many of us, including herself. She recently celebrated her 90th birthday on television and she's still working, laughing, and influencing us all with the value of wit, being positive and being involved and active. Let's face it, she's funny!

What Betty exemplifies include lessons for us all regardless of age. Keep reaching for positive experiences in your life. Keep laughing, including at yourself. Life can only be as amazing as you drive it to be. Don't let age ever be a hang-up on your choices nor your ability to generate opportunities for more choices. So what if you just turned 30, or 40, or 50, etc. If you sit and complain about getting older, Betty could easily turn to you and say, blah, blah, blah...zip it.

Attitude gives rise to a good many things. I wonder what Betty will accomplish by her next birthday. Better still, I wonder what you might accomplish by your next birthday.