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Many insisted the news was fake -- we've heard it before -- but TMZ confirmed that this time it's for real: White died on Friday of natural causes.
The most popular golden girl had tweeted earlier this week that she was looking forward to going diamond in mid-January. People Magazine even had a special cover story that proclaimed: "Betty White Turns 100!! Funny Never Gets Old."
Despite her age, White's death still surprised many. The eight-time Emmy winner said in interviews that she'd taken good care of herself and was particularly cautious in the time of COVID.
"A source close to Betty tells TMZ ... she didn't have any sudden illness, nor was she battling any particular ailment," TMZ reported on Friday. "We're told she's believed to have died from natural causes.
"Betty had been extra cautious during the pandemic, mostly chilling at home and passing the time by reading, watching TV and doing crossword puzzles."
White became a cultural icon. Her eight decades on TV, beginning in 1939, were by far the longest for any entertainer. At least two of her shows are sure-fire cargo for a cultural time capsule: "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls."
Betty Marion White Ludden was born on Jan. 17, 1922 in Oak Park, Illinois. An only child, she moved with her traveling salesman dad and homemaking mom to Los Angeles during the Great Depression.
She'd wanted to become a forest ranger or writer when she was young but wrote her high-school senior year play --and, of course, had the lead -- which quickly changed her aspirations.
White began in radio after graduating, eventually getting her own show. She became a TV co-host before once again flying solo, producing 5½ hour of ad-libbing six days a week for four years.
Her first gig acting on television was on a nationally syndicated show, "Life With Elizabeth," about a ditzy wife and her flummoxed husband, It also brought White her very first Emmy.
White had survived two failed marriages when she filled a celebrity spot on the daytime TV game show "Password." Two years later, she married the host, Allen Ludden, whom she frequently cited as the great love of her life.
Ludden was 63 when he died of stomach cancer 40 years ago. He and White had been married 18 years, part of which saw her draw raves -- and awards -- as man-chasing cooking-show host Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore" show.
White soldiered on after Ludden's death, although she once told an interviewer: "If one more person said, 'Oh, you're so strong,' I would have decked them."
Then came her biggest role came, as Rose Nylund in "The Golden Girls," which ran from 1985 to 1992.
White didn't stop there, though.
She was 87 when an appearance in a Snickers commercial during the 2010 Super Bowl reignited the flames of popularity, leading to a memorable evening hosting "Saturday Night Live," a starring role in "Hot In Cleveland" and even a reality show, "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," which was described as "a geriatric 'Punk'd'."
White was toasted at the Emmy Awards in 2018:
Television was a wild idea when Betty White began her career. She deftly navigated its many myriad twists and turns without ever seeming dated. There have been few other performers -- if any -- whom you can say remained as hotly in demand in their 90s.
She no doubt would have been just as popular at 100.
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