At 71, Anne Cotheran might not seem to need a role model.
But she was awed by Betty White.
"I'm 71 years old. She's 88. She's up there on the stage. This is an inspiration. Amen," Cotheran said after White's appearance Sunday at Life: An Expo for Boomers & Seniors.
"I can't thank you enough," White told several thousand people at the Chattanooga Convention Center. "I can't thank everybody enough for an 88-and-a-half-year-old broad to still be doing this."
White, who's been a part of television history in every decade since the 1950s, is white-hot again.
She earned an Emmy nomination this spring for her guest appearance on "Saturday Night Live." She has won Emmy awards for her work on game shows, as well as on sitcoms such as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls."
She was the special guest for the Life Expo, which featured vendors offering goods and services catering to baby boomers and seniors. It was sponsored by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Memorial Hospital and WRCB TV.
"We wanted to bring Betty White to this event as a way to say thank you to the community," said Times Free Press President Jason Taylor. "The people that are here have been our most loyal customers, and we wanted to thank them."
Fans exploded with cheers and whistles as White gracefully strode a catwalk to a podium where she answered questions from former Miss Tennessee Stefanie Whittler, of Soddy-Daisy, and from audience members.
One fan asked she ever watches reruns of "The Golden Girls."
She does when she has time, White said, and she finds herself "laughing out loud not at me, but at the writing and at the girls."
Earlier Sunday, White spoke to the Times Free Press in an interview.
She said she had never been to Chattanooga or Tennessee, but that she was touched by the reception she had received here.
"That Southern hospitality thing isn't just a rumor," she said.
She was especially moved by time spent with patients at Memorial Hospital.
"That's always a very emotional situation," she said. "People are so sweet. We were there with the pet therapy group, and people just light up with the animals."
When White left the stage Sunday, she cried a little as the audience sang "Thank You For Being a Friend," theme song for "The Golden Girls."
The crowds left with smiling faces, enjoying the chance to see the star they have idolized for years.
"We watched 'The Golden Girls.' and we feel like she's part of the family," said Soddy-Daisy resident Ingeborg Rogers.
Chattanooga resident John Pogue called White "an outstanding person."
"To be 88 and be able to do what she does - it just shows that no matter what the age, you can make the best of life," he said.