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Accomplished actress Betty White left a lasting legacy

When it comes to the earliest days of television, Betty White was truly the last of the originals.

She was a professional actress before television emerged as a worldwide sensation in the mid 20th century. She was planning to celebrate her 100th birthday later this month.

Even considering her advanced age, I was surprised to hear the announcers of the Tournament of Roses parade tell the audience that she’d passed away. For many years, she defied the 20th century emphasis on youth that usually applied to show business.

Instead of fading away, White got more popular and more respected as she became elderly. Early in her career she was ahead of her time. She later kept up with the times, enough so that she could be entertaining in interviews with any 21st century news person or comedian.

I have a DVD at home of classic 1950s television comedies, which includes five episodes of White’s show Life With Elizabeth. It features a young Betty White as a suburban housewife with a mind of her own. Her husband Alvin, played by Del Moore, puts up with his wife’s mischief. The show earned White her first Emmy award.

In one episode Elizabeth enjoys telling everyone about almost having an accident when a tree fell down on a freeway. In another, Elizabeth and Alvin go through the awkwardness of entertaining an old boyfriend of Elizabeth’s who was visiting town on business.

The show seems very tame by modern standards, but it was far reaching in a day when women were often expected to stay in their husbands’ shadows.

White had at least several 1950s television counterparts, including Harriet Nelson and Barbara Billingsley’s June Cleever. They were examples of unquestioned efficiency, well educated characters who were vital parts of family success.

What took root in Hollywood spread throughout America in the 1950s and 1960s as women slowly began to take on a wider variety of roles in society. It was evident in the 1970s Mary Tyler Moore show, in which Mary, Rhoda, Phyllis and Betty White’s celebrity homemaker Sue Ann Nivens all had busy professional lives.

Possibly White’s greatest success was her role as the proper Rose Nylund in the 1980s comedy Golden Girls. She was a great counterpart to Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty. Together they became a symbol of how people could lead active lives after they reached retirement age.

Golden Girls was part of a trend toward vital aging, a symbol of how there was more to retirement than just sitting in rocking chairs. People became more likely to exercise, more likely to travel and more likely to be active as volunteers.

White reflected transformations in how society viewed women and senior citizens. She helped to break down stereotypes in both cases.

You have to wonder which people will emerge next as venerable elderly celebrities, as people who stand out because of longevity. One possibility from the 2022 Tournament of Roses parade was its grand marshal LaVar Burton, who burst on the scene as the star of Roots almost 50 years ago.

Hopefully we’ll have at least several such icons. We can learn a lot from people who’ve had long and successful careers, not just in show business but from all walks of life.

Sometimes there’s too much of an emphasis on the latest fads and the latest big names. Some of them can fade out almost as quickly as they burst on the scene. They become bits of trivia. People hear them mentioned and wonder whatever happened to them.

It’s good to have people who’ve left a legacy, individuals who can serve as models of what can be accomplished as the years add up.

High school and college are at times portrayed as high points of life, as care free younger days that end as the real world takes root in adulthood. It’s too bad if someone thinks life is all downhill from there.

Instead there should be new goals and new achievements many years into the future.

— Jim Muchlinski is a longtime reporter and contributor to the Marshall Independent

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