{"id":82303,"date":"2022-01-04T13:20:37","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T18:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=82303"},"modified":"2022-01-04T13:21:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T18:21:57","slug":"betty-white-a-recipe-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/betty-white-a-recipe-for-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Betty White: A Recipe for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article \u2013 in honor of the beloved actress Betty White, who died Friday just 17 days shy of her 100th<\/sup> birthday \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega searches old newspapers to learn more about Betty. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book \u201cFrom the Family Kitchen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s inevitable that when you reach an advanced age, everyone wants to know your secret. In an interview for her anticipated 100th birthday, Betty White said that she avoided eating anything green. (1)<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Betty White at the premiere for \u201cThe Proposal,\u201d 1 June 2009. Credit: Angela George; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A previous 2010 interview discussed her daily menus consisting of meat and potatoes (French fries every day) along with a vegetable and salad. Whatever her food secret was, her longevity showed it worked.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), 31 October 2010, page 286<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This paragraph in particular was revealing \u2013 and humorous:<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), 31 October 2010, page 286<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Betty White is remembered for her numerous television roles, including her Mary Tyler Moore show role hosting a homemaker show on the fictional WJM-TV. Besides her fictional food show, I wondered if Betty had any other connections to food in the media. Looking into GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> gave me some answers.<\/p>\n

Coffee, Potato Chips, and More<\/strong><\/p>\n

Betty White appeared as a spokesperson for numerous products during her career. One such product was Luzianne Coffee.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Atlanta Journal (Atlanta, Georgia), 30 September 1964, page 77<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The beverage company began in 1902 and grew to sell coffee and tea. In 1960s newspaper advertisements, White not only bragged about the flavor of the coffee but provided her own \u201crecipe\u201d which was simply to use half as much of the coffee because that was all that was needed.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Richmond Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 15 October 1964, page 47<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luzianne Coffee wasn\u2019t the only food product she pitched. This Chipnics potato chip advertisement from 1966 includes her holding not only the package of chips but a few in her hand (presumably so consumers could see what they looked like, since they were first introduced just two years before, in 1964). Interestingly enough, the advertisement admits that consumers did not like their chips at first \u2013 so they made changes to the flavor. These homogenized chips were similar to Pringles, a later competitor, and were sold in a box.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Daily Gazette (Schenectady, New York), 21 April 1966, page 33<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Food companies used Betty and her likeness for recipe cards and recipe booklets, including this one for Danola ham that encourages readers to write to Betty so that she can mail one to you immediately.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
San Diego Union (San Diego, California), 12 February 1976, page 60<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Betty White, Homemaker?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although she played a homemaker on TV, a 1974 interview about her role on the Mary Tyler Moore show called her an \u201cindifferent cook,\u201d and provided an example of making a meat loaf for dogs that was less than appealing to actress and cookbook author Dinah Shores\u2019 dogs.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Corpus Christi Caller (Corpus Christi, Texas), 3 March 1974, page 78<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Betty: A Life That Was More than a Recipe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Betty White was the host of a fictional \u201cHappy Homemaker\u201d show and her name and image were used in food marketing campaigns, she became an American icon because she was so much more. In a 1954 interview about her new television talk show, she said American women were interested in far more than soap operas and cooking programs:<\/p>\n

\u201cThose shows are fine, too, but women are interested in everything. And it\u2019s unfair to think that daytime television has to be limited to dull homebody shows and giveaways.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Tulsa World (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 16 April 1954, page 37<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Betty exemplified that. She had a wicked sense of humor, she was passionate about various causes including animal rights, and had served her country during World War II in the American Woman\u2019s Voluntary Services. (2) And she enjoyed French fries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave you with this anecdote about Betty.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, Florida), 31 October 2010, page 286<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

_________________<\/p>\n

(1) \u201cBetty White Says the Key to Her Diet Is ‘to Avoid Anything Green’,\u201d Food + Wine (https:\/\/www.foodandwine.com\/news\/betty-white-says-key-to-diet-is-avoid-anything-green: accessed 2 January 2022).
\n(2) \u201cUS Army Pays Tribute to Betty White’s World War II Volunteer Service,\u201d Military.com (https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2022\/01\/01\/us-army-pays-tribute-betty-whites-world-war-ii-volunteer-service.htmlL: accessed 2 January 2022).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article \u2013 in honor of the beloved actress Betty White, who died Friday \u2013 Gena Philibert-Ortega searches newspapers to learn more about Betty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":82337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12235],"tags":[58083,25507],"class_list":["post-82303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-betty-white","tag-movies-and-actors"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/photo-0104-2022-featured-graphic-betty-white.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82303"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82335,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82303\/revisions\/82335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}