Just weeks shy of her 100th birthday, iconic comedic actress Betty White has died — but not before achieving one of her lifelong dreams.
White, ananimal activist, has often spoken about her desire to pursue a role in the U.S. Forest Service, which was unfortunately not a career available to women in the early 1940s after she completed high school.
Luckily, the U.S. Forest Service made right later in White’s life, after her years of success in Hollywood.
“In my heart I’ve been a forest ranger all my life, but now I’m official,“she saidat the time.
Betty White.Kris Connor/Getty
During her speech, White said she couldn’t put into words what the honor meant to her and recounted spending time in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range with her parents growing up. “My first memories are riding in front of my dad on his horse as we packed into the high Sierras,” said White. “And we’d go in there for three weeks and never see another two-legged soul other than birds, in our lives. And then we’d come back and I’d live all the next year waiting for our next trip into the wildness. Wilderness is harder and harder to find these days on this beautiful planet.”
White assured the audience that, even in her late 80s, she’d use the honor to continue her activism.
“Whether I’ve been a legitimate forest ranger or not, I’ve been working for the cause for the last 89 years,” she said, adding, “I know this is an honorary position but it’s also one where I can use a voice try to protect the remaining beautiful parts of this gorgeous world we live on.”
Just weeks before her death, White spoke to PEOPLE about what would have been her 100th birthday on Jan. 17, 2022.
White said her long life was thanks in part to being “born a cockeyed optimist.” She added, “I got it from my mom, and that never changed. I always find the positive.”
source: people.com
