Betty White's 'Hot in Cleveland' producer speaks out after 'Golden Girls' star's death: 'I loved her so much'

Betty White’s death was confirmed Friday by Jeff Witjas, her longtime agent and friend. She would have turned 100 on Jan. 17.

As Elka Ostrovsky, the widowed caretaker of the Ohio manor where the show’s three coastal refugees (played memorably by Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick) take up residence, White got all the best lines. She was saucy, cranky, sexually liberated and maintained a rebel spirit; her character enjoyed bending the law and, it was hinted, was averse to a good toke.

For Milliner, "Hot in Cleveland" presented a chance to work with a legend whom he had grown up revering thanks to her turns as the sweet-natured Rose Nylund on "Golden Girls" and the man-hungry Sue Ann Nivens on "Mary Tyler Moore."