January 17, 2017
2016 Didn't Get Her, Betty White is 95 Today
READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Actress and gay icon Betty White is 95 today.
"I just appreciate the fact that people have been so kind to me all these years." After more than 75 years working in showbiz, White told Yahoo News Anchor Katie Couric, "The fact that I'm still working. That's the thing I'm most grateful for-that I still get asked for jobs."
Fans of the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Golden Girls" actress have extra reason to celebrate the animal rights activist's 95th birthday today. Remarking on the vast amount of beloved celebrities who died last year, a GoFundMe campaign was set up in late December to "protect Betty White from 2016."
"Help 2016 catch these hands if it goes anywhere near Betty White!" wrote campaign spearheaded Demetrios Hrysikos on the GoFundMe page. "If she's okay with it I will fly to where ever Betty White is and keep her safe till Jan 1, 2017. Now , assuming she doesn't want a strange Greek standing guard outside her door, all monies will be donated to the Spartanburg little theater to help craft new stars of stage and screen to carry the mantle of the legends that have left is this year."
$9,245 of the campaign's $10,000 goal was raised to ensure White's well-being. The monies raised reportedly ended up going to benefit a South Carolina theater company.
"I had no idea this would get this big and it's been a lot to take in, but I'm glad it did," Hrysikos said. "One way or the other, for a worthy cause, 2016 will end on a good note. In the days following the new year I will appear on Your Carolina to present the check to the head of the Spartanburg Little Theater. Every red cent minus GoFundMe's fees."
