Javascript is not enabled.

Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.

Skip to content
Content starts here
CLOSE ×
Search
CLOSE ×
Search
Leaving AARP.org Website

You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

100 Ways to Remember and Celebrate Betty White’s Life

The legendary actress has died just shy of her 100th birthday, and here are as many ways to pay tribute


spinner image Betty White in a red shirt smiling on the set of the game show To Tell the Truth
Kelsey McNeal/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

 

​It seems like we were all counting down the days to Jan. 17, when TV legend Betty White would have turned 100. While White died on Dec. 31, 2021, her remarkable career and personality inspires us to count to 100 forever in her memory. From binge-watching her many hit sitcoms to laughing along to her blooper reels, from reading her hilarious memoirs to toasting her memory with her favorite drink, here are 100 ways to celebrate Betty White. ​​​​​

Binge all 24 episodes of the Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace, which hits Hulu on Jan. 10. Rose (White), Blanche (Rue McClanahan) and Sophia (Estelle Getty) invest in a Miami hotel, where they work with manager Roland (Don Cheadle) and chef Chuy (Cheech Marin). ​

Watch it: The Golden Palace on Hulu

Book your ticket for Betty White: 100 Years Young — A Birthday Celebration, a one-day-only cinematic event hitting movie theaters on Jan. 17 and featuring Carol Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Tina Fey and more. ​

Book it: Fathom Events

Marvel at her Emmy-winning 2010 hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, when Betty, at age 88, broke the record for the show’s oldest host. ​

Watch it: Saturday Night Live on Hulu, NBC.com, Peacock

Also, watch her lock lips with the pool boy (played by Bradley Cooper) on the SNL 40th Anniversary Special.​

Watch it: SNL 40th Anniversary Special on YouTube

Catch up on all of Rose Nylund’s kooky stories about St. Olaf, Minnesota, as you rewatch seven seasons of The Golden Girls on Hulu.​

Watch it: The Golden Girls on Hulu

Hear her cameo in Toy Story 4, in which she voices a tiger-shaped teething ring named Bitey White, alongside Chairol Burnett, Carl Reineroceros and Melephant Brooks — you can probably guess who plays each!​

Watch itToy Story 4 on Disney+

​And then celebrate the quartet’s return in an episode of the Disney+ animated series Forky Asks a Question called “What Is Love?”​

Watch it: Forky Asks a Question on Disney+

Get a lesson in weaponized perkiness from Sue Ann Nivens, star of The Happy Homemaker and Mary Richards' network frenemy on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. White won two Emmys for the role. ​

Watch it: The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu

Teach the next generation about a TV legend with the newly published My Little Golden Book About Betty White

Buy it: My Little Golden Book About Betty White on Bookshop.org

Add First Lady of Television: The Betty White Collection to your DVD collection. The four-disk set includes 40 episodes from her early days in TV, including Life With Elizabeth and Date With the Angels. ​

Buy it: First Lady of Television: The Betty White Collection on Amazon

Whip up a Rose-inspired, Nordic-tinged recipe from The Golden Girls Cookbook, such as Swedish meatballs, “Minnesota antifreeze” or Vänskapskaka (aka St. Olaf friendship cake).​

Buy it: The Golden Girls Cookbook on Amazon ​​

Enjoy comedian Drew Droege’s funhouse-mirror impression of Rose from the ongoing hit drag show Golden GirlzYou can hear him and his fellow castmates wax nostalgic about the iconic sitcom on YouTube. ​

Watch it: Golden Girlz on YouTube ​

Or see them perform live in a black box theater under a Los Angeles Mexican restaurant, from Jan. 14 to 23.​​

Book it: Golden Girlz Live ​​

Spend 83 minutes watching Betty White’s greatest game show appearances, including on Match GameTattletalesPassword Plus and Super Password

Watch it: BUZZR on YouTube

Head to the Buckeye State with TV Land’s Ohio-set sitcom Hot in Cleveland. White stars as Elka Ostrovsky, a sassy and sarcastic caretaker at a guesthouse where three middle-aged entertainment industry vets (played by Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick) decide to move after leaving behind the shallow and competitive world of Los Angeles.​

Watch it: Hot in Cleveland on Apple TV, Google Play, Paramount+, YouTube

Snap a photo in front of Betty White’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6747 Hollywood Boulevard.

Visit: Hollywood Walk of Fame

​​Invest in some property in Sicily or St. Olaf in the Golden Girls edition of MonopolyTokens include a plate of candied herring and Rose’s teddy bear Fernando. ​

Buy it: Amazon

Recapture the magic of The Golden Girls with the PaleyFest LA panel, which in 2006 reunited Betty White, Rue McClanahan and writers and producers from the show.​

Watch it: YouTube

Pre-order the picture book That's Betty!: The Story of Betty White, part of the “Who Did It First?” series that will be published in February. 

Buy it: That’s Betty!: The Story of Betty White on Bookshop.org

Giggle along to the Mary Tyler Moore Show gag reel.

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

… and then chuckle along some more in part two.​

Watch it: YouTube ​​​​​​​

Meet celebrities’ pets (and wild animals) on the 1970s show Betty White’s Pet Set, which featured appearances from Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Barker, James Stewart and more.​

Watch it: Betty White’s Pet Set on IMDbTV

Learn about White’s beauty regimen in her 2011 book If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). “I have no idea what color my hair is,” she writes, “and I never intend to find out.” ​

Buy it: If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t) on Bookshop.org

​​... Or listen to the audiobook version, which earned White her first Grammy Award. ​

Listen to it: If You Ask Me (Andof Course You Won’t) on Amazon Prime, Audible

Crack up at the side-splitting show Betty White’s Off Their Rockers, in which senior citizens play Candid Camera–style pranks on unsuspecting young’uns. ​

Watch it: Betty White’s Off Their Rockers on Google Play, YouTube

Catch her Emmy-winning guest appearance on The John Larroquette Show, in which she starred as a fictionalized version of herself, who’s writing a (terrible) musical adaptation of The Golden Girls. Through a weird set of mishaps, Larroquette ends up playing Dorothy! ​

Watch it: YouTube

Celebrate Betty White’s decades-long career by watching her win the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards. ​

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

… and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 Daytime Emmys. ​

Watch it: YouTube​​​

… and then be celebrated at the 2018 Primetime Emmys! ​

Watch it: YouTube

Take sides in her ongoing (fake) feud with Ryan Reynolds. Our money’s on Betty! ​

Watch it: YouTube

Squeal at the creativity of Betty’s F-bombs in Lake Placid, a 1999 horror comedy about a 30-foot-long saltwater crocodile terrorizing a small town in Maine. White plays a foulmouthed widow who, in one of the film’s wildest scenes, feeds a dairy cow to the giant croc. ​

Watch it: Lake Placid on Amazon Prime

Test your knowledge of the fierce foursome with the Golden Girls edition of Trivial Pursuit

Buy it: NBC Studios Shop

Hang a little Betty White on your Christmas tree with this jolly ornament. 

Buy it: Paper Source

​​Drop into your local zoo. White has been a member of the board of trustees at the Los Angeles Zoo since 1974, and when asked what job she would take if she couldn’t be an actress, she told the Guinness Book of World Records, “Hands down, a zookeeper.”​

Visit: Los Angeles Zoo

​​Chart her remarkable life on Instagram (@BettyMWhite).

Follow her: Instagram

Laugh along to her side-splitting bloopers from TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

Check out her 2014 appearance on the wrestling show WWE Raw, which was nominated for a Slammy Award — yes, that’s really a thing!​

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

Add a miniature Funko Pop version of Rose to your toy collection.

Buy it: Funko Pop collectible on Amazon Prime

Make a pilgrimage to one of America’s national forests. In 2010, the U.S. Forest Service made Betty an honorary ranger, a dream of hers since childhood, back when the job wasn’t open to little girls. “In my heart I’ve been a forest ranger all my life,” she said, “but now I’m official.”

Visit: Forest Service

Pick up some good advice from her top 10 list, “Betty White Tips for Living a Long and Happy Life,” from The Late Show with David Letterman. Number 10: “Get at least 8 hours of beauty sleep, 9 if you’re ugly.”​

Watch it: YouTube

Put together a 500-piece Golden Girls jigsaw puzzle, which features the gals’ illustrated faces and important objects from the show’s history — including, of course, cheesecake. ​

Buy it: Amazon Prime

Grow Betty’s signature curly coif with your very own Rose Nylund Chia Pet. 

Buy it: Amazon

Gather your family to watch the sweet Hallmark movie Annie’s Point, which stars White as a recent widow who takes her free-spirited granddaughter on a 2,000-mile road trip to scatter her late husband’s ashes in California. ​

Watch it: Annie’s Point on Sling TV

Pay homage to her life along with Betty’s 1.5 million other Twitter followers at @BettyMWhite.

Follow her: Twitter

Eavesdrop on a conversation between two comedy legends during Betty’s appearance on Alan Alda’s podcast Clear+Vivid. If the episode title (“Betty White and Alan Alda Fall Desperately in Love”) is any indication, they have great chemistry. ​

Listen to it: Clear+Vivid on Spotify

Watch White’s Emmy-nominated appearance on the magazine-set sitcom Suddenly Susan, on which she guest stars as a seemingly sweet older woman who sues the publication for age discrimination after she’s fired, in the 1996 episode “Golden Girl Friday.” ​

Watch it: “Golden Girl Friday” on Amazon Prime​

Get a Betty White tattoo — or at least watch her meet other fans who have taken the ink plunge on this hilarious segment on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Watch it: Jimmy Kimmel Live! on YouTube

Order the Rose Nylund cocktail (which is made with Shine Spirits Northwesty Vodka, Portland Syrups Rose Cordial and hop water) at Shine Distillery & Grill in Portland, Oregon. On Jan. 15, the distillery will honor her legacy with a queer dance party called Keep It Tight, Betty White!

Visit: Shine Distillery & Grill

Glean wisdom from the new book How to Be Golden: Lessons We Can Learn from Betty White

Buy it: How to Be Golden: Lessons We Can Learn from Betty White on Amazon

Warm up with a pair of Rose Nylund socks. 

Buy it: Amazon

Suss out who ate the last piece of cheesecake by playing the Golden Girls edition of Clue.

Buy it: NBC Studios Shop

​​Take a walk down memory lane with Conan O’Brien and White, as she recalls the time she almost got bleeped on Jack Paar’s show. 

Watch it: Late Night with Conan O’Brien on YouTube

Sing along to the 10 greatest musical moments from The Golden Girls, including the Rose-penned ditty “Miami, Miami, You’ve Got Style.”

Watch it: YouTube​​​​​​​​​

​​​Shed a few tears at the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie The Lost Valentine, in which Betty stars as a woman who’s waited 60 years for her pilot husband to return from World War II. ​

Watch it: The Lost Valentine on Amazon Prime

Snack on a hot dog, French fries and Red Whips — White’s lunch of choice, according to a 2014 interview with Bon Appétit.​

Read it: Bon Appétit​​​

Share in her love of wildlife with the documentary Betty White: Champion for Animals

Watch it: Betty White: Champion for Animals on IMDbTV

Buy your grandkid — or, let’s be honest, yourself — the Golden Girls Fisher-Price Little People Collector set. 

Buy it: Fisher-Price Little People Collector set

Relive moments from Betty’s first six decades in Hollywood with her lighthearted 2010 memoir Here We Go Again: My Life in Television

Buy it: Here We Go Again: My Life in Television on Bookshop.org

Sip a fruity cocktail (maybe one made with lingonberries to honor Rose?) out of a Geeki Tikis Golden Girls tiki-style cup.

Buy it: Geeki Tikis mugs on Amazon

Listen to her appearance on the PBS podcast American Masters, on which she sings the praises of her friend Carol Burnett.

Listen: American Masters on PBS.org

Travel back in time with the 1950s sitcom Life With Elizabeth, which earned White her first Primetime Emmy nomination. 

Watch it: Life With Elizabeth on Amazon Prime

Play a round of “Is Betty White Older Than?” with Reggie Watts and Amar’e Stoudemire on The Late Late Show with James Corden. (Hint: She’s been around longer than sliced bread!)

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

Tune into the Yes, Dear episode “Kim’s New Nanny” to see White play an exceptionally bad caretaker — and earn an Emmy nomination in the process. 

Watch it: “Kim’s New Nanny” on Dailymotion​​

Eat a Snickers in honor of her hilarious 2010 Super Bowl commercial.

Watch it: YouTube ​​​

Dance around a fire to honor her character, Grandma Annie, from the Sandra Bullock rom-com The Proposal.

Watch it: The Proposal on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube

See Betty White and Steve Harvey play a round of The Match Game on his show to find out what she’d rename The Real Housewives. (It left Steve speechless.) ​

Watch it: Steve on YouTube​​​​​

Laugh until you cry at the risqué zingers she doled out at The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner.

Watch it: The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner on Paramount+

And watch her guest star opposite Shatner on Boston Legal, in which she played the troublemaking former assistant Catherine Piper ... 

Watch it: Boston Legal on Apple TV, Hulu

​​​​… a role she first originated on The Practice, which earned White her 15th Emmy nomination, in 2004. ​

Watch it: The Practice on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu​​​​

Cheer along to all the special guests (Ed Asner! Valerie Harper! Jack Paar!) on her 1987 episode of This Is Your Life

Watch it: This Is Your Life on YouTube

Dive deep into Betty White’s pioneering role as a producer, writer and star of her own show in Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s gripping new book, When Women Invented Television ... ​

Buy it: When Women Invented Television on Bookshop.org​​​

… and then devour the author’s 2013 book Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted: And All the Brilliant Minds Who Made the Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic. ​

Buy it: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted on Bookshop.org​​​

Donate to one of Betty White’s favorite charities, the Morris Animal Foundation, a nonprofit established in 1948 to advance veterinary medicine and fund research. ​

Discover: Morris Animal Foundation

​​​Find yourself saying “I didn’t know she had such a good voice!” as you watch this supercut of Betty White singing on her various television shows in the 1950s. 

Watch it: YouTube

Let out a celebratory ape man yell as you watch Betty White and Johnny Carson play Tarzan and Jane in a 1981 sketch from The Tonight Show ... 

Watch it: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on YouTube​​​

… or thank heaven for their hilarious (and half-dressed) roles as Adam and Eve in 1979 ...​

Watch it: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on YouTube

​​​… or this somehow even less-dressed, locker-room-set sketch from 1978. (We didn’t realize how often Johnny Carson was shirtless!) ​

Watch it: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on YouTube​

Discover what a trailblazer Betty was by watching a 1954 episode of her eponymous variety show, in which she featured Black singer and tap dancer Arthur Duncan. The casting caused a bit of a ruckus at the time, but she was steadfast in her decision: “Evidently through the South at that point it was a very heavy [thing], and I said, ‘I’m sorry, but he stays. Live with it!’ ”

Watch it: The Betty White Show on YouTube

​​​Get misty as White and Duncan later reunite on NBC’s Little Big Shots in 2017. 

Watch it: Yahoo

Look for a wickedly fun little scene in the 2010 comedy You Againin which Grandma Bunny Byer (White) trades barbs with an old rival, played by none other than Cloris Leachman.​

Watch it: You Again on Apple TVDisney+Google PlayYouTube

Snag tickets to That Golden Girls Show! A Puppet Parody, which is continuing on its hilariously campy national tour through the spring.

Book it: That Golden Girls Show! A Puppet Parody

Showcase your Golden Girls fandom with a dozen “red Roses” on your lawn — aka 2-foot-tall cardboard cutouts of Rose Nylund in a sharp crimson blazer. 

Buy it: Prime Party

Gift yourself a Rose bobblehead doll from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. 

Buy it: National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum

Keep the spirit of the holidays alive with the Disney+ short Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa, in which White voices Mrs. Claus. 

Watch it: Prep & Landing: Operation Secret Santa on Disney+

Score a used copy of her 1987 book Betty White in Person.

Buy it: Betty White in Person on Amazon

Join in the roaring standing ovation that greeted Betty’s win as favorite TV icon at the 2015 People’s Choice Awards.

Watch it: YouTube

“Speak for the trees” by watching the environmentalism-focused animated film The Lorax, in which White voices the wise-cracking Grammy Norma. 

Watch it: The Lorax on Netflix

Get inside the brain of Rose Nylund with Christine Kopaczewski’s boxed set of four Golden Girls “autobiographies,” including Rose’s entry, As They Say in St. Olaf

Buy it: The Golden Girls: Forever Golden on Amazon

Tickle your funny bone with these Golden Girls outtakes and bloopers. 

Watch it: YouTube

Turn up your nose at the little people in honor of the snobbish socialite Ellen Harper Jackson, White’s recurring character on Mama’s Family.

Watch it: Mama’s Family on Apple TVGoogle PlayYouTube

Bop along to her electro-pop duet with British singer Luciana, “I’m Still Hot.” In the music video, she sits on a golden throne, surrounded by shirtless beefcakes, and raps lyrics like “I always come out on top / I’m Betty from the block / I locked my Emmys in my beatbox, beatbox.” ​

Watch it: “I’m Still Hot” on YouTube

Cower in fear at Grizelda Weezmer, the misunderstood Crazy Witch Lady of Camden County, on My Name Is Earl, which earned Betty yet another guest actress Emmy nomination in 2009.​

Watch it: “Witch Lady” on Hulu

Watch her interview with Frank Bruni from The New York Times to find out which actress leaves handpicked yellow roses on her doorstep as a nice surprise. ​

Watch it: YouTube ​​​​

Cook up a batch of Betty White’s Chicken Wings Pacifica, a sticky-sweet-savory party recipe that has been attributed to the actress since the 1960s and can be found on food blogs across the internet. Commenters love them.​

Make it: Stargayzing.com

Crochet with your very own set of Golden Girls yarn, and learn how to make additional accessories like Rose’s teddy bear, cheesecake and their iconic couch ... 

Buy it: Amazon

​… or cross stitch instead, if that’s more your style. ​

Buy it: Amazon ​​​​​

Decorate your house with a life-size cardboard cutout of the First Lady of Television. 

Buy it: celebrity-cutouts.com

Enroll in “Anthropology 101,” an episode of the NBC sitcom Community, in which White plays the zany Professor June Bauer, an explorer and world traveler who knows her way around a blow dart!

Watch it: “Anthropology 101” on Google PlayHuluNetflix

Get creative — and work out some stress — with the Betty White adult coloring book.

Buy it: Betty White: An Adult Coloring Book on Amazon Prime

​​Toast the beloved Betty White with her tipple of choice: a vodka martini!

Nicholas DeRenzo is a contributing writer who covers entertainment and travel. Previously he was executive editor of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset and New York magazine.

 

 

Unlock Access to AARP Members Edition

Join AARP to Continue

Already a Member?