15 Amazing Facts About Betty White

Betty White passed away at the age of 99 on December 31, 2021, just about two weeks shy of her 100th birthday. Here’s what you should know about the life and legacy of the star of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls.

On January 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois, the future television icon was born Betty Marion White, the only child of homemaker Christine Tess (née Cachikis) and lighting company executive Horace Logan White. In her autobiography If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t), White explained her parents named her “Betty” specifically because they didn‘t like many of the nicknames derived from “Elizabeth.”