Betty White: A Legend

Madi Babensee (G8)

Published Issue 4 2021-2022

Current Events

Betty White was an astounding human being. Her television career lasted seven decades, and she appeared in over one hundred films and television series. She was the winner of twelve Emmys, and starred in the television show Golden Girls for nearly twenty-five years. She passed away at the astounding age of ninety-nine years old, on December 31, 2021. In this article, I will be highlighting the astonishing accomplishments and life of the legend Betty White.

Early Life

Betty White was born on January 17, 1922, in the Californian city of Los Angeles. She was an only child, and her parents were named Horace and Tess White, who were respectively an electrical engineer and a homemaker. Betty’s family survived the great depression by selling crystal radios, most of the time in exchange for goods - sometimes even for dogs. Originally, she wanted to become a forest ranger, but as women were not allowed to serve as rangers at that time, so she decided to pursue another career path: acting. After writing, directing, and playing the lead in her senior year school play, she chose to become an actress.

Career

Betty White’s career began in the 1940’s, when she began working on the radio after being told she was “not photogenic enough” for modelling. In 1949, she started her own radio show known simply as The Betty White Show. From 1952 to 1954, she hosted a television show called The Betty White Show, which was one of the only female-directed programs on television at that time, along with being one of the first television programs to feature an African-American performer. Several decades later, in 1985, Betty scored her most notable role - as Rose on The Golden Girls.