By Dina Arrevalo
South Texas Reporter
MySA
Betty White is perhaps best known for playing the charmingly clueless and slightly spacey Rose Nylund on the hit 1980s TV show, The Golden Girls. When she died at 99 years old on New Year's Eve in 2021, numerous tributes poured in celebrating the life she spent not just bringing joy to others but as a staunch animal advocate.
Like White, Gladys Porter was an animal lover. Porter was the daughter of the late Earl C. Sams, cofounder, president and longtime chairman of the board of the J.C. Penny Company. Sams’ success as a businessman afforded his daughter – a businesswoman in her own right – the ability to become philanthropists.
And that commitment to serving the public good would one day lead Betty White to Brownsville, at the southernmost tip of the Rio Grande Valley.
Porter grew up in New York but eventually moved to the Valley after meeting and falling in love with Valley native Dean Porter, according to Brownsville District 2 City Commissioner Linda C. Macias, who earlier this year posted a video on Facebook recounting the zoo’s founding.
“While vacationing in Florida, Gladys met Dean Porter, from Olmito, Texas, whose father was a developer,” Macias says in the video.
Porter’s interest in animal conservation was first sparked during wildlife excursions to Africa during the 1960s, according to archives maintained by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Ultimately, that passion drove Porter to found the Brownsville zoo that would go on to bear her name. Porter and her husband began building the zoo in 1968. The zoo opened in 1971. And just a few years later, Porter’s good friend, Betty White, began paying visits to the Valley to help fundraise for the zoo.
In 2018, zoo officials posted a throwback to those early days on the Gladys Porter Zoo Facebook page. The post features a black and white photograph of Porter, White and her husband, game show host Allen Ludden, grinning ear to ear while standing next to an ostrich. The bird is so tall that its head and feet extend past the frame of the photograph.
“TBT to when Betty White attended one of our earliest fundraisers, the ‘Zoo Ball,’ in 1975,” the post reads.
Porter grew up in New York but eventually moved to the Valley after meeting and falling in love with Valley native Dean Porter, according to Brownsville District 2 City Commissioner Linda C. Macias, who earlier this year posted a video on Facebook recounting the zoo’s founding.
“While vacationing in Florida, Gladys met Dean Porter, from Olmito, Texas, whose father was a developer,” Macias says in the video.
Porter’s interest in animal conservation was first sparked during wildlife excursions to Africa during the 1960s, according to archives maintained by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Ultimately, that passion drove Porter to found the Brownsville zoo that would go on to bear her name. Porter and her husband began building the zoo in 1968. The zoo opened in 1971. And just a few years later, Porter’s good friend, Betty White, began paying visits to the Valley to help fundraise for the zoo.
In 2018, zoo officials posted a throwback to those early days on the Gladys Porter Zoo Facebook page. The post features a black and white photograph of Porter, White and her husband, game show host Allen Ludden, grinning ear to ear while standing next to an ostrich. The bird is so tall that its head and feet extend past the frame of the photograph.
“TBT to when Betty White attended one of our earliest fundraisers, the ‘Zoo Ball,’ in 1975,” the post reads.
Zoo officials recognized White again on the day she died.
“The world lost an incredible human being. Betty White… was an advocate for conservation and the good work that zoos do. She was a longtime friend of Gladys Porter and great supporter of this zoo and many others,” reads a December 3, 2021 post on the zoo’s Facebook page.
“The world lost an incredible human being. Betty White… was an advocate for conservation and the good work that zoos do. She was a longtime friend of Gladys Porter and great supporter of this zoo and many others,” reads a December 3, 2021 post on the zoo’s Facebook page.
1 comment:
Amanda Blake, Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke, was also a visitor in support of the zoo. She had an affinity for large cats.
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