Oak Park To Celebrate Betty White's Life, But Not On MLK Holiday

OAK PARK, IL — Betty White may not have called Oak Park home for long, but that won’t stop the village from celebrating her life, which would have reached 100 years later this month.

But Village officials are making sure that the celebration of the comedic television pioneer, who died last week of natural causes at age 99, doesn’t conflict with Martin Luther King Day.

Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman told Patch on Thursday that a celebration honoring the former “Golden Girls” and “Mary Tyler Moore Show” star was always scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 15 rather than the 17th, which TMZ reported this week. A proclamation that is expected to be OK’d by the Oak Park Village Board next week will recognize Jan. 17 as what would have been White’s 100th birthday, but that the Betty White Centennial Celebration will take place two days prior, Scaman said.

The celebration will include a 30-minute ceremony that is scheduled to be held in front of Lake Theater at 10 a.m. Scaman is scheduled to read a proclamation that highlights the accomplishments of White’s seven-decades long career in entertainment, but that does not establish a Betty White holiday in Oak Park, the village president said.

Frank Lipo, the executive director of the Oak Park-River Forest Historical Society, is also scheduled to speak before the ceremony concludes with a cake that will be provided by Turano Bakery. Small businesses from Oak Park will be encouraged to promote “Be Like Betty” specials, like the one Mickey’s Restaurant is offering that includes a hot dog (the TV legend's favorite), fries and a Diet Coke.

The purpose of the day, Scaman said, is to honor the optimism with which White lived her life.

“She made the choice every single day to be happy,” Scaman said of White, who has been part of Oak Park’s Hall of Fame for years. “She was just such an optimistic person.”

Online petitions on social media have pushed for the Village to establish an annual Betty White holiday, despite the fact that the actress only spent the first two years of her life living in Oak Park. Scaman said that the attention that has come to the village since White’s death has been a bit surprising, but that local officials are happy to celebrate the life of a beloved national treasure.

Scaman said the choice to set up a celebration was done more to support the downtown business community, which will be encouraged to hang posters and images of White in their windows for the Saturday celebration. She said that at a time when the country has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic for so long, a reminder to find the goodness in life is needed.

“I think people just grasp onto optimism,” Scaman said. “There hasn’t been a person who has come forward that didn’t absolutely love her.”