“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told PEOPLE in a statement on Friday. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”
Witjas adds, “Betty died peacefully in her sleep at her home early this morning.”
White was gearing up to celebrate her 100th birthday on Jan. 17. Ahead of her centennial year, in a cover story, Whiteopened up to PEOPLEabout how she was feeling about turning 100 years old.
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“I’m so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” said the veteran actress. “It’s amazing.”
According to White, being “born a cockeyed optimist” was the key to her upbeat nature. “I got it from my mom, and that never changed,” she said. “I always find the positive.”
Of course, the iconic actress also cracked a joke about the secret to her long life,telling PEOPLE: “I try to avoid anything green. I think it’s working.”
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RELATED PHOTOS: Betty White’s Life in Photos
White was a warm andpopular presenceon the small screen, with a career that dated back to the early days of the medium and that spanned decades. Long before her hilarious turns onThe Mary Tyler Moore Showin the ’70s andThe Golden Girlsin the ’80s, in 1952 she appeared in theI Love Lucy-likeLife with Elizabeth, a show she also produced.
In 2010, at age 87,she enjoyed an awards-laden resurgence, when, after starring on aSnickers commercialduring the Super Bowl, polls and petitions overwhelmingly named her the public’s choiceto hostSaturday Night Live,emcee variousawards showsand evenbe a sergeant’s dateat a Marine Corps ball.
Early Life
Born Jan. 17, 1922, inOak Park, Illinois, Betty Marion White, an only child, moved with her parents, traveling salesman and electrical engineer Horace White and homemaker Tess Curts White, to Los Angeles during the Great Depression. Camping once a year in the Sierra Nevadas with her folks fueled that love of animals. “We wound up with 26 dogs once,” White told PEOPLE in 1999.
As a child,she dreamed about becoming a forest rangeror a writer, only to fall in love with performing when she took the lead in the high school senior play that she wrote. She skipped college and began performing on the radio, but before launching an acting career she married twice: first to Dick Barker, a WWII pilot she wed in 1945 (the marriage lasted only a few months once he took her home to an Ohio chicken farm), then in 1947 to agent Lane Allen, who wanted her to give up showbiz.
Betty White.Hulton Archive/Getty
Ever after,White referred to Ludden as the love of her life. “The secret to our marriage was enthusiasm,” White said. “When I knew Allen was coming home, I would freshen my makeup and put on a new blouse.”
Though she bravely carried on after Ludden’s death, White admitted, “If one more person said, ‘Oh, you’re so strong,’ I would have decked them.”
RELATED PHOTOS: Look Back at Betty White and Allen Ludden’s Love Story in Photos
Career Beginnings
White’s career in entertainment began in the 1940s after she graduated from high school. She began working in radio and later got her own show, calledThe Betty White Show. In 1949, she became co-host with Al Jarvis on his daily variety showHollywood on Televisionin Los Angeles.
Frank Edwards/Fotos International/Getty; Eric McCandless/Freeform via Getty
She earned her second and third Emmy nominations while appearing onThe Mary Tyler Moore Showin the 1970s and became the first woman to win a Daytime Emmy Award in the category of outstanding game show host for the NBC showJust Men!in 1983.
The Golden Girls
In the years immediately afterward, White’s work pace only accelerated, culminating withThe Golden Girls,on which she played the lovable Rose Nylund during the show’s run from 1985–92. Rose, from St. Olaf, Minnesota, was the widow of Charlie Nylund. (Originally White was offered the role of sexy Southern belle Blanche, which ultimately went toRue McClanahan.Bea ArthurandEstelle Gettyalso starred.)
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Life imitating art was seldom more endearing.
Hot in Clevelandand 21st-Century Stardom
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Hot in Clevelandstarred Valerie Bertinelli,Jane LeevesandWendie Malickas three 40-something best friends from Los Angeles who land in Cleveland after attempting to fly to Paris. White played the caretaker of the home the three friends live in. The arrival of the ladies sparked the character’s life again and thrust her back into the world of dating at 80 years old.
Speaking to PEOPLE in January 2021, White said that “having a sense of humor” isthe key to a long and happy life:“Just looking at the positive side and not dwelling on the downside. [It] takes up too much energy being negative.”
And that had been her motto for years. In 1999, she told PEOPLE she looked to make the most of every day. “You better realize how good life is while it’s happening,” she said. “Because before you know it, it will all be gone.”
source: people.com
