The Great Comedienne

I was hoping, like everyone else, that Betty White would make it to her one hundredth birthday later this month, especially when she herself was looking forward to celebrating it.  So when word came on New Year's Eve about her death, I was completely bummed, as was everyone else in America.

Betty White was a television and comedy legend, having played numerous roles on TV and having been known for her quick wit (particularly as a game show panelist) and her understated performances.  Her two best known roles sum up her talent perfectly - "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"'s Sue Ann Nivens, who was all sweetness and lightness as a homemaking show host but vicious and conniving off-screen, and "The Golden Girls"'s Rose, a naïve but kindly woman who loved people and was the sort of person who would have annoyed Sue Ann.  White played freewheeling matriarchal characters from Grandma Annie in the romantic comedy movie The Proposal to the very well-traveled Elka Ostrovsky in the 2010s TV series "Hot In Cleveland," and she excelled at just about everything she did.  

And she managed to keep us all entertained for six decades.  She was and remains an American institution  RIP. 😢