Camping in Yellowstone and High Sierras as a child, Betty White dreamed of being a ranger

[jimmy]

U.S. FOREST SERVICE JUMPS ON BETTY WHITE BANDWAGON - USFS makes her an
honorary ranger

By The Reliable Source The Washington Post

Betty White: actress, forest ranger (PHOTO in flat hat). How much
Betty White is too much of a good thing?
The octogenarian icon is everywhere these days: hosting "Saturday
Night Live," co-starring in "Hot in Cleveland," appearing in the movie
"You Again" and rolling around in a golf cart in that new commercial
for California. Still not enough for you? The U.S. Forest Service just
jumped onto the Betty bandwagon.

White, 88, came to Washington on Tuesday for the Mark Twain Prize
honoring Tina Fey, so the Forest Service commandeered a side room at
the Kennedy Center for a brief ceremony making her an honorary ranger.
As a child, White camped in the High Sierras and Yellowstone with her
parents and dreamed of being a ranger, but the service didn't accept
women at the time. Eight decades later, the Forest Service realized
that they need "Ranger Betty" more than she needs them.

Anyway, it was basically a slapdash PR stunt. (No forest? No trees?
Hello?) But White threw herself into it endearingly -- wearing her
ranger hat, clutching a stuffed Smokey Bear, grinning from ear to ear
and looking thrilled to death. She announced, to hoots of approval,
that she was wearing the Stetson hat with her formal gown at Fey's
tribute. The ranger rank and file ate it up, clamoring for pictures
and autographs.

Let's cut to the chase: How long can the Betty White Moment last? "I'm
so grateful to still be working in this business that I love and still
get honors like this," she told us. She turned to another fan, and her
agent, Jeff Witjas, weighed in.

"It's never going to stop," he said. "It's never going to stop --
until she wants it to stop."

[Owen Hoffman]

A very interesting story. When Betty White first went camping with
her parents in the High Sierra there's a good possibility that among
the first rangers she met might have been Dr. Carl Sharsmith, who in
1931 began his NPS career as Tuolumne Meadow's first and only ranger-
naturalist. He remained Tuolumne's only ranger-naturalist until 1946
when he was joined by others. Interesting that the US Forest Service
was the first Federal agency to make Betty White an honorary ranger.

Owen