Off The Record: Even after death, Betty White still late-night star

By Chris Spangler

I decided not to make any official new year’s resolutions for 2022 because, let’s face it, they wouldn’t last a week. But I did make one informal vow: to get more sleep by going to bed earlier. 

And so far so good: I head up to bed about 10:45 p.m., just after Stephen Colbert’s monologue.

But that’s where it ends.

Just before closing my eyes, I’ll check my cellphone for any final messages. Then I’ll go to email. And finally, to Facebook.

By then, I’m wide awake.

There’s always something interesting to view on social media, and this past week, it’s all been about Betty White. As readers undoubtedly know, the comedic television icon passed away on New Year’s Eve at age 99, just two weeks before her 100^th birthday. She was a national treasure, and definitely a favorite actor of mine.

So I have been devouring every article I can find about Betty (Did you know that is her real given name? Her parents didn’t like other nicknames for Elizabeth, so they cut right to the chase!), not to mention watching and rewatching videos of “Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “The Golden Girls” highlights.

And are they hilarious. So much so that these “best of” clips have been keeping me up into the wee hours night after night.

A lot has been written about Betty White in recent days, and more salutes are on tap, especially for what would have been her birthday on Jan. 17. But I learned something I had never known before, and it got me thinking.

Betty White had two short-lived marriages before meeting her soulmate and third husband, Allen Ludden. He was the host of “Password” from 1961-80, and Betty — a sharp game show whiz — was a frequent guest celebrity player from 1961-75. They married in 1963 and were together until he died of stomach cancer in 1981. 

She never rewed. As Betty once told celebrity interviewer Larry King, “Once you’ve had the best, who needs the rest?” 

Betty mourned her late husband for 41 years. In fact, the New York Post reported that she regretted moving from the Carmel home they built together to Brentwood to facilitate in-home care.

And that made me wonder: where did Betty White plan to make her eternal home? Will it be in Carmel, or Brentwood or her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois?

Then again, Allen and Betty’s stars are next to each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, so will she be buried next to him in — wait for it — Mineral Point, Wisconsin?

Yes, Allen Ludden rests in peace at Graceland Cemetery in Mineral Point. In fact, after he died, Betty donated the Allen Ludden Papers to the Mineral Point Library Archives.

His modest grave marker simply states Allen’s name and birth and death dates: Oct. 5, 1917, and June 9, 1981, respectively. On the back, it contains a brass military plaque that reads: Allen E. Ludden, Capt. U.S. Army World War II.”

Biographypedia says that one year after Allen was born in Mineral Point, his father passed away from the Spanish flu. His mother remarried when Allen was five years old, and the next few years saw the family living in Waupaca, Janesville, Antigo and Elkhorn before finally settling in Texas.

So several Wisconsin communities can lay claim to having been “a home” of Allen Ludden, but only Mineral Point can say it was “the home.”

I have not yet heard where Betty White will be laid to rest, although the caretaker of Allen’s Find-a-Grave memorial page already had one set up for Betty, as well.

Wherever it is, there’s no doubt that golden girl will be at home, for Betty White was, indeed, America’s sweetheart.