Betty Marion White was very lucky to arrive safely into the world on January 17, 1922. As she wrote in 1987’s Betty White in Person (pages 118-119):
Having one child was not a considered decision on the part of my folks. A month before I was born, my mother was in a bad car accident, and the doctors were forced to patch up her skull fracture before they could worry about the baby. I managed to hang in there, but the question of more children was, by then, academic.
Please observe:
- Contrary to a popular assumption, Betty’s name was not “Elizabeth.” Betty has said in interviews that her mother wanted to avoid nicknames. She named her “Betty” and immediately began calling her “Bets.”
- They put Crede’s silver nitrate solution in her eyes to protect them in the event her mother had gonorrhea.
- Betty was born on a Tuesday evening.
- Her parents’ residence was listed as being located at 220 Pleasant Street. That would have been this apartment building.
