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Betty White’s Friend Patty Sullivan Recalls ‘Good Times’ and Final Visit With Star Before Death
Not so long ago, Betty White walked into her birthday party and was shocked to see her biggest Hollywood crush there! “Her assistant had purchased a life-size cardboard cutout of Robert Redford sitting at a table,” Patty Sullivan tells Closer exclusively. “Betty opened the door and she almost fainted. It looked so much like him really sitting there. Her face turned bright red, and she was like, ‘No, you didn’t! You didn’t!’”
On December 31, 2021, the world lost Betty at age 99. Now Patty, her dear friend of 53 years, is sharing her memories in a new book, Betty White’s Pearls of Wisdom: Life Lessons from a Beloved American Treasure. “I still feel her presence so much,” Patty says. “This book is my love letter to Betty. I wanted to help keep the legacy of this amazing person alive.”
Patty met Betty and her husband, Password host Allen Ludden, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, in 1968. They had all come to see Tom Sullivan, the singer whom Patty would marry, perform in a local pub. “Betty and Allen were doing a summer stock show at a theater up the street,” Patty recalls. “I remember how gorgeous she was and also how happy and full of love. She sparkled all over.”
Allen also seemed besotted with his wife. “I just think he was dazzled by her,” says Patty, who struck up a friendship with the pair. “They played matchmaker for me because I was among the girls trying to get Tom’s attention. They picked me out of all of them and said, ‘Hey, Tom, you better take a look at her.’”
It worked! The young couple wed a year later. “Betty and Allen’s love for each other so inspired Tom and I,” says Patty. “We wanted to reflect what they were reflecting.”
Betty and Allen shared with their friends their excitement over building a vacation home in Carmel, California. It had been a long-held dream that finally came to fruition in 1981. “They found this lot above the hillside where they used to walk on the beach,” Patty says, adding that the home was designed to take advantage of the spectacular views across the bay to Point Lobos. “From every level, you could see the sand and waves. It was just breathtaking.”
Sadly, just months after the house was completed, Allen died of stomach cancer. Afterward, Betty confessed that she was thinking of selling the property. “It was a work of love that they had hoped to share for a long, long time. It was very sad that it didn’t happen,” says Patty. But Betty’s mother, Tess, who taught her not to fear death because it meant learning “the secret” of the afterlife, talked her out of selling. “She told Betty that this should be your place to come and shed your tears,” says Patty.
Betty kept the home, which recently sold for nearly $11 million. It became her private place to think, walk along the beach and look for sea glass — which became one of Betty’s favorite pastimes. “There were a number of colors — this brilliant lime green, royal blue and red, the most rare,” recalls Patty. “Betty made her own artistic creations with them in her front window, where they caught the morning sun. It was just stunning.”
Betty spent many holidays with Patty, Tom and their children, who looked at the actress as another grandmother. “We were together for every New Year’s Eve and Day for the last 15 years,” says Patty. “I always cooked for us. There was one year we brought a Tony Bennett concert special with us to watch after dinner. Betty adored it. She just loved show business.” The friends also enjoyed several games of Scrabble that night — which Betty won. “She was a fierce competitor!” Patty says.
Betty’s busy social life also included a regular poker game with four or five other friends. “They played at least once a month, if not twice,” says Patty. The game-loving star also enjoyed watching Jeopardy! and pro golf tournaments on TV. “Especially in the last 10 years, she would come here on Sunday and we’d watch the Masters or anytime Tiger Woods was playing. Betty just adored it.”
And, yes, it’s true, Betty really did like to party. “Her favorite drink was a vodka on the rocks with a twist of lemon,” confides Patty. “Betty loved good times!”
The star’s longtime friends were a diverse group, and not everyone was famous. But some of her closest show business pals included Carl Reiner, Dinah Shore, Burt Reynolds, Robert Wagner and Jill St. John. Her Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Georgia Engel was also a constant in Betty’s life. “We were so privileged to have Georgia with us for a couple of Thanksgivings and Christmases,” Patty says. “They were very special friends.”
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 curtailed Betty’s social life, of course. “One of her last calls during COVID was a Zoom call with Allen’s children,” recalls Patty, who got an opportunity to see her beloved friend one last time near Christmas 2021. “Her doctor gave us strict orders to stay just 15 minutes,” says Patty, who admits they stayed longer. “We were also not going to leave that day without hugging her!”
During their last conversation, the couple asked if Betty had any requests for her memorial service. “She said, ‘You kids do what you want,’” Patty recalls. “‘I’m not going to be there. I’m going to know the secret.’” Later, the actress insisted on walking her friends to the door, as she had always done. Says Patty: “She waved and said, ‘Drive carefully.’”
