Always smiling. Betty White’s assistant celebrated what would’ve been the late star’s 100th birthday with a look back at one of her final days last month.
“On this special day, I wanted to share this photo of Betty,” her assistant Kiersten wrote via Facebook on Monday, January 17, alongside a snap of the Hot in Cleveland alum dressed in all green on December 20, 2021. “I believe it’s one of the last photos of her.”
The Golden Girls star’s associate remembered White being “radiant and beautiful and happy as ever,” during her final photo shoot. In the snap, the Proposal actress smiled while sitting on a flower-printed chair with a full face of makeup.
“Thanks to all of you who are doing kind things today and every day to make the world a better place 
,” she concluded.
White died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 99. The Mary Tyler Moore Show alum was just shy of her 100th birthday when she passed.
The legendary actress suffered a stroke several days prior to her December 31 death. Her cause of death was originally reported as natural causes. White’s death certificate later identified a cerebrovascular accident, which can cause tissues damage due to losing blood flow to the brain, as the reason for her passing.
“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” her agent and close friend, Jeff Witjas, said in a statement to E! News last month. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”
Less than two weeks prior to her death, White filmed an interview for the Betty White: A Celebration tribute movie, which was set to air on her milestone birthday. The photo her assistant posted on Monday is from the same day.
While the Betty White Show star is no longer here to celebrate her birthday, her fans will still be able to honor her on the occasion thanks to the Betty White: A Celebration film. The movie has become a one-night-only occasion, premiering nationwide across more than 1,500 theaters in the U.S. on Monday.
“It was her idea to do this. She said, ‘I want my fans to know this.’ We’ve been asked to share it. We’ve been asked to put it on social media,” producer Steve Boettcher told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday, January 16, of White’s final project. “The only place we thought was right was putting it in the film and sharing it with her friends, family and fans who are going to be there.”
Boettcher recalled the Date With the Angels alum recording her brief December 20 clip for the film without reading from a teleprompter or script.
“She ad-libbed it, and that’s Betty to the very end. She’s spontaneous and has the wherewithal to go with it and do it live,” he said. “She was so good at that. You can’t watch it for the first time and help but get goosebumps when you hear her. It’s just very, very sweet.”
Fathom Events’ Betty White: A Celebration will be in theaters on Monday, January 17.