Monday, March 7, 2016

Carol Burnett's "Nanny" Mae White 1967 Hollywood Forever Cemetery


Mae Eudora Jones White (July 30, 1885 - March 7, 1967) was the grandmother of comic actress Carol Burnett, host of "The Carol Burnett Show." Both of Carol Burnett's parents suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age, she was left with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. Burnett's parents divorced in the late 1930s, and she and her grandmother moved to an apartment near Burnett's mother’s in an impoverished area of Hollywood, California.


Burnett ended each TV show by tugging on her left ear, which was a message to her grandmother who raised her. This was done to let her know that she was doing well and that she loved her. During the show's run, Burnett's grandmother died. On an Intimate Portrait episode on Burnett, she tearfully recalled her grandmother's last moments: "She said to my husband Joe from her hospital bed 'Joe, you see that spider up there?' There was no spider, but Joe said he did anyhow. She said 'Every few minutes a big spider jumps on that little spider and they go at it like rabbits!!' And then she died. There's laughter in everything!" Burnett continued the tradition of tugging her ear.


Mae Eudora Jones White is buried at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.


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