will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

White was recently reported to be in good health and anticipating a celebration of her hundredth birthday on January 17.

“I'm so lucky to be in such good health and feel so good at this age,” She said in an interview published December 28. “It's amazing.”

White claimed she was “born a cockeyed optimist” and it's always kept her upbeat.

“I got it from my mom, and that never changed,” she said. “I always find the positive.”

She joked about her longevity, saying the key was her diet.

“I try to avoid anything green,” she said. “I think it's working.”

White was well-known for her role as Rose on The Golden Girls, playing the sweet-natured roommate in a house full of older women making a chosen family. But her career started much earlier than that, when she began working in radio and had her own program titled The Betty White Show. She received her first Emmy nomination in 1951 for her work as the co-host on daily variety show Hollywood on Television. Her second and third nominations came in the 1970s for her work on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In total across her career, she was nominated for for 21 Primetime Emmys, with five wins.

Over the last several decades, White has continued work, most notably as a series regular playing Elka Ostrovsky in Hot in Cleveland, but she was a guest star and frequent late night guest for many programs, always a welcome addition to any scene. At the time of her death, White was residing in Los Angeles.