Please Call Me Betty!

Betty White has been coming to my house for years. First it was Concentration, then the Mary Tyler Moore Show, the Golden Girls, Saturday NIght Live and finally Hot in Cleveland.  I wasn't surprised at all when she turned out to be a warm witty lady who could brighten up a room with her  quick smile  and make you feel special.

"I got my sense of humor from my parents".  White said, " I was an only child and we would sit around the table and laugh.  My father was a traveling saleman and I didn't always understand the stories he told.  He would tell me, 'You can tell that story at school, but better leave this one here'"

White gently asked to be called, "Betty".  Betty was in Grand Rapids for the first ever Laughfest to benefit Gilda Club.

"Gilda loved to make people laugh.  I never met her, but I loved to watch her.  She made me laugh."  Betty said.

The actress is no stranger to cancer.  Her husband, Alan Ludden of Concentration, died of cancer in 1981.  White eyes grew misty when asked about why she came for Laughfest.  Betty was also asked a variety of  other questions -- everything from what she thought about Facebook

"It's wonderful, dear, but people don't interact the way they used to."

To what she thought about her big comeback .

"Hey I was working the whole time.  I've been here ".

I had the chance to ask a question too.  I wanted to know which of her "wonderful characters was she most like?"

"You remember the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Sue Ann Nivens.  She was the happy homemaker and a nymphomaniac.  My husband (Alan Ludden) used to say I was just like Sue Ann, except I couldn't cook."

White also went on explain that Rose Nylund from the Golden Girls was her favorite .  I suspect Betty brings a little of herself to every character she plays.  While she was talking, I closed my eyes and I could hear Sue Ann and Rose.  It was just like having Betty over at my house again.