Betty White Had 26 Dogs, No Kids and Other Things You May Not Have Known About the TV Icon

Betty White, the last living “Golden Girls” star, passed away on Friday.

Actress Betty White, who was about to turn 100, passed away at her home. Before her career, she appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Golden Girls. Her most recent role was playing a producer on Life With Elizabeth, a sitcom that earned her first Emmy Award.

Decades after the Golden Girls had stopped making new episodes, White remained a beloved icon for people of all ages and her agent said that she was “going to live forever”, even though she was getting older.

“I 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,” Jeff Witjas, her LA agent and close friend, told PEOPLE.

Ludden was the third husband of White and they were married for almost 20 years before his death in 1981. Although they had an enduring relationship, they never had children and White reportedly never regretted not giving birth.

She had said to CBS Sunday Morning in 2012 that if she had got pregnant, her child would have been the only thing on her mind. But, she didn’t regret having kids because it gave her the chance to focus on her career.

After Katie Couric interviewed Miley Cyrus in 2012 on CBS Sunday Morning, the singer said that she had wanted to have a baby but her career would always come first. She didn’t regret having children, because she felt it gave her a chance to focus on her career. Being a compulsive person, Miley doesn’t believe she could handle both kids and a career.

However, White was a mother through step children. Ludden, who had three biological children of her own and added to that, the role of step mother to three more children. During a conversation with actress Sandra Bullock, White reportedly said she was blessed to have had all of her children at one time.

White also had a deep love for animals she said and told People in 1999 that she had owned 26 dogs at one point. Her family used to go camping together and she still holds the honor of being an honorary United States Forest Ranger.

At the age of 88, she was awarded for her years of hard work and determination by the U.S Forest Service. At the ceremony she said that her parents would have been more proud of this award than any other she ever won because it was a family honor. She also admitted finding this award personally meaningful, it touched her personally.

White told ABC News that she had suddenly decided to work with animals and become a forest ranger when she was camping. However, at the time, women were not allowed to become forest guards. She was pleased when she saw the women who were part of the team and were wearing the forest ranger uniforms at the ceremony.

White’s also holds the Guinness Book of World Record title for Longest TV Career for an Entertainer (Female), which she was awarded in 2014.

She doesn’t remember the name of the TV show she made her debut on in 1939, but she did tell Guinness World Records that she wore her high school graduation dress and danced the Merry Widow Waltz with her high school president.

Add this with her career being one that spans over 50 years and an award winning actress and singer isn’t enough, she is an author and a model.

Beating all odds, she became one of the biggest names in Hollywood and she knew hands down what she wanted to do as a career. “Hands down,” she said to the Guinness Book of World Records that she would have loved to be a zookeeper.

While all interesting facts about White, one of the most inspiring tidbits of information about her has to do with the things she wished she’d done differently. When asked by the Guinness Book of World Records if she has any regrets about her career, White responded:

“I have no regrets at all. None. I consider myself to be the luckiest old broad on two feet.”

H/T: newsweek