Betty White, the five-time Emmy Award-winning actress whose career spanned six decades and included pivotal roles on some of TV's most influential shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls, has died, PEOPLE has confirmed. She was 99 years old, and would have turned 100 on Jan. 17.

"Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever," her agent and friend, Jeff Witjas, told PEOPLE in a statement Friday. "I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don't think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again."

Read more here:  Betty White, comedian and legendary Golden Girls star, dies at 99