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Remembering Betty White, whose show business career spanned 8 decades

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Well, you've probably seen the many tributes to the beloved actress Betty White over the weekend. With a career in show business that spanned eight decades, Betty White gave us plenty to celebrate.

H ALAN SCOTT: She was just incredible in so many ways.

KERRI DOHERTY: And the world certainly is different now that she's gone.

SCOTT: Yeah.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

H. Alan Scott and Kerri Doherty host "Out On A Lanai: A Golden Girls Podcast" (ph). They're both 39 - both self-proclaimed superfans of Betty White, who played Rose on the sitcom. Their inboxes are filled with messages from other "Golden Girls" fans, including someone who still watches the show with her dad.

SCOTT: And at the end of the message, she said that she was 18. I mean, she wasn't even alive when the show was on the air, and she has this connection with the "Golden Girls" in a way that has been passed down from generation to generation.

DOHERTY: While Betty was still with us, it sort of felt like the "Golden Girls" was still here in some way. And now it's sort of this balloon that we've let go of. And even though the show will always exist, it will exist in a different way now that she's no longer here.

MARTIN: We'd like to leave you with this - Betty White on NPR back in 1995, reading a passage from her book titled "Here We Go Again: My Life In Television."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

BETTY WHITE: Television was a fledgling, barely out of the nest, when I began taking my first stumbling professional steps. As of this writing, television and I have been having at each other for the past 46 years. Now, that may not mean much to anyone else, but it boggles my mind that in such a transitory field of endeavor, I'm still allowed to hang in there.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND (THE GOLDEN GIRLS THEME)")

CINDY FEE: (Singing) And if you threw ay part and invited...

MARTIN: Betty White was 99.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND (THE GOLDEN GIRLS THEME)")

FEE: (Singing) You would see the biggest gift would be from me and the card attached... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.