Carol Burnett is on the cover of People because she turns 90 on April 26. I unapologetically adore Carol and love to see her celebrated whenever possible. She overcame a rough childhood and so many people telling her she wouldn’t/couldn’t make it in her chosen profession. We grew up watching The Carol Burnett Show, which she said she loves to hear. She also told People she can’t grasp the fact that she’s been alive for nine decades. She still feels like a little girl. It’s understandable too, because she still has all her original parts: her knees, her hips, and her brain.

Carol Burnett has been making audiences laugh for decades, picking up six Emmys, six Golden Globes, one Grammy and a Kennedy Center Honor along the way. On April 26, she’ll reach another milestone — turning 90.

“I can’t wrap my head around it,” Burnett tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I still feel like I’m about 11, but I’m amazed. It sure went fast. But I’m glad because I’ve got all my parts — got my hips, I got my knees and I’ve got my brain, so I’m happy about that.”

As a kid growing up in Los Angeles, “I used to pretend to be on a radio show,” Burnett recalls. “I would yell out the window, ‘Now ladies and gentlemen, we have a young girl who is going to sing here without any musical accompaniment. One time, a man next door said, ‘Will you turn that goddamn thing off?’ And I thought, ‘I’m a hit. They think it’s real.'”

“I was pretty much of a quiet student all through grammar school, junior high and Hollywood High,” Burnett says. “I would kid around with my friends, the neighborhood kids, stuff like that. But I never really thought about it until I got to UCLA and I was in an acting class. A lot of the kids at the class were doing heavy, dramatic stuff and I thought, I can’t do that. So I picked something light and they laughed. That’s when the bug bit.”

Burnett simply wants her legacy to be that “I made people laugh, made them feel good when they might have been down,” she says. “In my fan mail, many say it was the only time the family would get together, to watch and laugh. And that sometimes they were lonesome and were cheered up by our show. That’s a good feeling.”

[From People]

I’m shocked that Carol has not replaced her hips or knees if that’s what she’s saying. She’s in dynamite shape. And still very sharp. She’s still working, the article said she has a new project coming out for Apple TV+ called Palm Royale. I don’t have a lot of desire to stick around past my 70s, but if I must, I want to do it like Carol or Rita Moreno or Betty White – just as active and vibrant as ever. I wouldn’t mind their bank accounts either.

The article lists many of Carol’s roles, of which there are plenty. One role I think gets largely overlooked is she was fantastic as the voice of Kangaroo in Horton Hears a Who! I realize out of all the iconic roles she’s done that’s a bizarre one to pick, but she was that good. Like I said, I like Carol in everything she does. I’ve even seen her live. Last time I wrote about her I told you some of my favorite skits so now I’ll let you tell me yours. To celebrate Carol properly, NBC is doing a two-hour special called Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love. It will feature famous folks, some who appeared on her variety shows like Cher and Julie Andrews, and some who just adore her like Steve Carrell and Billy Porter. It will air at 8PM on April 26 and stream on Peacock the next day. While searching photos I saw that Vicki Lawrence and Bob Mackie will both be there. So will Bernadette Peters, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Kristin Chenoweth, Sutton Foster and Susan Lucci, among many others.

Photo credit: People and Cover Images