Betty White: A Compassionate Person

Jeremy Levy back with you.

Today I would like to write a blog post about one of my favorite TV actresses Betty White. Before I got interested in Talk Radio heroes, and around the time that Bob Mcgrath started to become one of my heroes, I had a TV hero. You guessed it!  Betty White.  Betty was born on January 17, 1922, and passed away on December 31, 2021. The way Betty became one of my heroes was through a book that Ginny Cassano gave me called the leading Lady by Tom Sullivan and Betty White. I got this book on tape when I was 5 or 6 years old. Betty, and Tom both wrote, and narrated the book together. I could tell by listening to the book that they really enjoyed being together. Betty was a compassionate woman. When I got the book on tape, I memorized pretty much all of the book.  She wasn’t very good about asking people to her house for dinner. She wrote in the book that “As much as I enjoy having them there, I am neither a secure host nor a comfortable one. This is in spite of the fact I had a lovely housekeeper, Edna McNair, who did all of the hard part.  As a result, the ones who got invited were usually cherished friends of long standing.” She was talking about Tom and his wife Patty Sullivan.  Betty, Patty, and Tom knew each other since the early 70’s. When Betty and her husband Alan Ludden at the time were doing a play called Bell Book and Candle, would visit a restaurant called Deakin’s Perch in Massachusetts.   After meeting when they would visit the restaurant, Tom would quickly launch into their favorite tunes when he heard they were in the restaurant. After the show closed, Betty’s husband knew he couldn’t leave this kind of talent behind. He called a friend of his named Mike Douglas, and Mike invited Tom to sing on his show. Alan helped Tom finish college.  Tom thought that it is amazing how life turns.   Betty, Patty, and Tom spent many dinners together. They were really good friends.  They would have dinners together at Betty’s house, or sometimes they would have dinners together at Tom and Pattie’s house. In the first chapter of the Leading Lady, Betty talked about one special dinner, in April of 1987, which was the year I was born. During the dinner Betty asked how Tom and Pattie’s animals were. Betty was a big animal lover. At the time, she had 2 dogs and a cat. Tom and Pattie had 4 dogs. One of these was Dinah, his guide dog (his eyes), for 9 years. She guided him everywhere.  She taught lessons to him, and that was her personality.  It soon became abundantly clear to Betty that everything wasn’t great. Tom explained it was Dinah. Dinah was going through some depression. She couldn’t do her job as well as she did at the beginning. She was a different dog.  Tom and Patty had taken her to the Vet, and he checked her over. The vet said it is like some men who were fine as long as they had a job to go to. Then they retire and bang and they fall apart. Tom knew that he had to get a different guide dog. This is where Nelson came into the picture. When Nelson came into the picture, this is where Dinah started developing the depression.  Tom was very confused about what to do with this situation. He didn’t want to burden Betty with this problem. He knew how busy Betty’s life was at the time. She already had two dogs and a cat, and her busy schedule with acting in movies, and new TV shows. Tom thought his only option was to take Dinah back to leader dogs where they got her, and they would give her fine care for the rest of her life. After Tom had told Betty about the situation,  there was a pause. Betty said, “Would you like me to try her Tom?” Betty was surprised that it was her own voice that spoke those words.  They finally decided that they would think it over, and if it still seemed the right thing to do, they would bring Dinah over to Betty’s house on Easter Sunday of 1987. Betty didn’t realize at the time that she was the next passage in Dinah’s life. I can relate to this because some people when they meet me don’t realize that they are the next passage into my life. When Dinah came to Betty’s house, she checked everything out. Betty said in an interview on YouTube that Dinah gave her a different element to life.  I really liked this particular story because it shows Betty being compassionate with animals, and with people with a disability.  The story of Betty White and Tom Sullivan shows that animals can communicate if you just listen. Also, it shows that people who have a disability can communicate just as well as other people can. Sometimes people with a disability send people messages, and it takes special people to recognize the message they send. My teacher Robert Thomasson(my Elementary and Middle School teacher) has told me many times that I am a teacher for people, and that I was a teacher for him when he had me in his classes. I was a challenge for him, and I think that’s wonderful that I present a great challenge for people.

In the book, The Leading Lady, Betty was so impressed with how much Tom could memorize. She was also impressed when they went to the San Diego Zoo that Tom was able to describe the animals he felt so clearly. His descriptions of the way he saw the world were amazing to Betty. Betty wondered if the way Tom described the animals at the zoo were similar to the way he would describe Dinah. After they had the little interview in the book, when Tom left he said next time we are going to talk about your Dinah. Betty started to get the idea that she had things to describe to Tom as well.  Betty explained her trip to the guide dog place in San Rafel California. She really thought it was amazing how they worked with the guide dogs there. A few years later, Jennifer Owens (one of my skiing teachers) gave me a tape of different people reading the childrens book of virtues. Betty read two stories I really enjoyed which were The Little Red Hen and Why Frog and Snake Never Play Together. Betty had a great expression when she read out loud.  Betty and Tom collaborated on two other books together- A Story of Shared Vision and Alive Day. Betty was also an actress in the Golden Girls. I remember listening to an episode one Saturday night, and hooking up my microphone from my Karioke Machine, and taping the episode. Betty had a great sense of humor. She appeared on the game Password. She did well on that game show.   I really appreciate the people in my life who are compassionate with me.   A few of the people in my life who fit this description are Gary Defrange, Deb Mathias, and Lois Melkonian.  Gary wasn’t afraid to teach me skiing these last couple of years when other instructors didn’t have confidence in me. Deb wasn’t afraid to try new things to help, like teaching me math. Lois wasn’t afraid to have me in her workshops that she did at her house, and she wasn’t afraid to teach a different workshop to our Toastability Toastmasters group. When I meet people like this, I feel like there is real chemistry, and I really feel like I can trust these people. They became and stayed my close friends.  People like Gary, Lois, and Deb have become part of my family, just like Betty and Dinah became part of Tom’s family.  

Betty wrote at the end of the leading lady that sharing these thoughts has been a joy. She knew with conviction, even if others couldn’t see Dinah, that the leading Lady Dinah will always be stretched at Betty’s feet.  The way I heard about Betty’s death was listening to the news on 850 KOA radio. Susan Witken said in the news casts that many people loved Betty’s work. I certainly agree with this.   I will always remember Betty for her friendship with Tom and her compassion for the blind.

To wrap this up, on the afternoon of September 3, 2023, during a radio program I listened to hosted by Ron Caskey, Ron reminded us that everything happens for a reason. I believe that the people I have met along my journey have a special reason for being in my life. Even though I never met Betty White, although I hoped that someday I would, she was still a very special person in my life and a special hero to me.

Thanks for tuning in.