Personal Life
Furness married four times. Her first marriage was to composer-conductor Johnny Green in 1937 with whom she had one child. After her divorce from Green in 1943, she married Bud Ernest twice; first in 1945, and again in 1946 . Her second marriage to him lasted until his death in 1950. She married again in 1967 to Leslie Midgley who survived her. Her granddaughter is Liza Snyder from the CBS series Yes, Dear
In 1990 Furness was diagnosed with cancer. She continued working for The Today Show until she was released from her contract in 1992. Her dismissal was widely publicized and controversial and was viewed by many of Furness' supporters as ageism.
Furness expressed her philosophy of never declining a job, and she believed it be the reason that she progressed through such an unconventional series of professions. During her illness she stated that she wanted nothing more than to be able to work, and, (consumer reporter to the end), once mentioned in an interview that, as far as her cancer went, "the treatment is worse than the disease", but her health continued to deteriorate until her death in New York from stomach cancer in 1994.
Read more about this topic: Betty Furness
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