For Carol Burnett, her birthday is a bittersweet day. On one hand, it's another completed orbit around the sun, a blessing in itself. On the other hand, her close friend and I Love Lucy legend Lucille Ball passed away on the same day in 1989 when Carol turned 56. Moreover, she always remembers a gift the late actress would send that reminds her of the close bond they had.
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Recently, PEOPLE obtained an excerpt from Carol's upcoming special, The Carol Burnett Show: Mother of All Marathons. There, Burnett reflects on the bond she shared with Lucille Ball and how she looked out throughout Carol's career. "The woman who influenced me probably the most was Lucille Ball," Carol says. "She came to see me in Once Upon a Mattress, which was my first Broadway break, and she was there the second night, and I was more nervous that she was in the audience than I was the night before, when all the critics were."
Carol Burnett Recalls What Lucille Ball Would Give Her on Every Birthday
Afterwards, Lucille went backstage to reach out to Carol personally. There, Ball tells her to let her know if she ever needed anything in her career. Eventually, Burnett takes her up on it. The 92 year old recalls getting the opportunity for a special but under the condition that she got a big time guest star. After working up the courage to cash in that favor, she nervously calls. Then, Lucille encourages Burnett's work up to that point and sheds all the butterflies by asking, "When do you need me?"
The rest was history, the pair get incredibly close outside of their professional work. Every year since, Ball would give Carol a gift every single year with a personal note until her death. "She came on the show and then later on, years later, I did her show after I Love Lucy, and she was a guest on my show when I got my variety show. We were very close, and she always sent me flowers on my birthday," Burnett recounts. "So this one morning I got up, turned on the television set — it was my birthday — and she had died that morning, on my birthday. And that afternoon, I got the flowers that said, 'Happy birthday, kid.'"
