The world is mourning the death of Betty White
BY ORLY LYONNE
Beloved actress, LGBTQ ally and American icon Betty White, 99, passed away last month. Betty would have turned 100 on Jan. 17.
A trailblazer and pioneer in media, Betty had the longest running career for any woman in TV prior to her death—starring in multiple shows over the past 8 decades, starting way back in 1939.
Betty is perhaps most famous for her lead role as Rose Nylund in “The Golden Girls,” which ran from 1985 to 1992.
In 2010 a campaign for White to host Saturday Night Live was successful, and she became the oldest person ever to headline the show. A few months later, White booked another sitcom, Hot in Cleveland, on TV Land.
A longtime LGBTQ ally, Betty once said: “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with. If a couple has been together all that time—and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones—I think it’s fine if they want to get married. I don’t know how people can get so anti-something.”
Ryan Reynolds. who appeared with Betty in The Proposal wrote on twitter after her passing: “The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret.”
George Takei wrote: “Our national treasure, Betty White, has passed just before her 100th birthday. Our Sue Ann Nivens, our beloved Rose Nylund, has joined the heavens to delight the stars with her inimitable style, humor, and charm. A great loss to us all. We shall miss her dearly.”
Ellen DeGeneres tweeted: “I’m grateful for every second I got to spend with Betty White… Sending love to her family, friends and all of us.”
Journalist Dan Rather called White “a spirit of goodness and hope.”
“Betty White was much beloved because of who she was, and how she embraced a life well lived,” he wrote on Twitter. “Her smile. Her sense of humor. Her basic decency. Our world would be better if more followed her example. It is diminished with her passing.”
A longtime LGBTQ ally, Betty once said: “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with. If a couple has been together all that time—and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones—I think it’s fine if they want to get married. I don’t know how people can get so anti-something.”
