In the show’s premiere episode, “The New Housekeeper,” Aunt Bee returns to Mayberry from Morgantown, West Virginia - coincidentally, the real-life birthplace of Knotts - after Andy’s housekeeper marries and moves away. Bavier was cast as Aunt Bee, the paternal aunt of the widower sheriff. 3, 1960, “The Andy Griffith Show” made its debut on CBS. That episode (the program was subsequently renamed “The Danny Thomas Show”) starred actors Andy Griffith and Ron Howard, who were portraying a North Carolina sheriff named Andy Taylor and his son, Opie it served to introduce the new characters to a large TV audience. “Aunt Bee” - it’s typically styled “Bee,” instead of “Bea,” even though the character’s name was Beatrice - was launched after she was cast, not as Aunt Bee, but as a character called Henrietta Perkins, in an episode on Danny Thomas’s long-running “Make Room for Daddy” sitcom. Along the way, she won an Emmy Award, in 1967, as Outstanding Supporting Comedy Actress for that role her costar, Don Knotts, also won for comedic supporting actor the same year, one of the five Emmys he’d collect for his portrayal of Deputy Barney Fife. Of course it was Bavier’s 10-year stretch - the longest of any Mayberry character - as Aunt Bee on “The Andy Griffith Show” and its spinoff, “Mayberry R.F.D.,” that brought her fame and instant recognizability. It marked a full-time shift to television and film work for Bavier, which had begun a year earlier with her role in the science fiction classic, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” In her final Broadway role, she starred alongside Henry Fonda in “Point of No Return,” the year-long run of which ended in 1952. But working in vaudeville and getting her first role on Broadway (in the play “The Poor Nut”) at the age of 22 led to expanded stage work that included roles on and off the Big Apple’s Great White Way and even trips to entertain World War II troops in the Pacific with the USO. Like Mount Airy, the town on which Griffith loosely based Mayberry, it is in the hilly Piedmont region between the coast and the Appalachians.Frances Bavier was born in 1902 near Gramercy Park - a few blocks south of Central Park - in New York City. When she retired in the early 1970s, she moved from Los Angeles to Siler City, one of a number of towns that had invited her to appear at celebrations over the years. Bavier appeared in such Broadway productions as ″Kiss and Tell,″ ″Point of No Return,″ and ″The Lady Says No.″ That’s why she came here - to retire in peace.″īefore her role as Beatrice Taylor in the long-running 1960s series starring Griffith as a Southern sheriff, Ms. ″They ask questions like ‘Is there an Andy Taylor sheriff here? Is there a deputy like Barney Fife?’ It’s ridiculous. ″We get television crews and reporters down here all the time trying to get some information,″ Craven said. ″We’ll get people in here all the time asking what her address is or for directions to her house,″ said police detective Sgt. Sometimes, admiring or curious outsiders have made life difficult. ″She’s an extremely private individual, and she’s let that be known,″ said Wanda Ingold, town clerk. Hospital officials say they’re not releasing any details at her request and that doesn’t surprise most residents. Bavier was admitted to the coronary care unit of Chatham Hospital here the day before Thanksgiving. ″It’s just a shame this year’s influx coincides with Aunt Bee being in the hospital.″ ″Every year at some time or another, people get it in their head to check up on Aunt Bee,″ says Velma Sadler, the Police Department records clerk and a 12-year friend of Ms. Though she’s avoided interviews and contacts with visiting fans over the years, and has been ailing lately, she’s made friends among the folks here.
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