on Facebook, some people are posting about what they'd like to see in a flashback episode about Andys wife and explain why he's so close to Opie, why no pictures of his wife are around, why he or anyone never talks about her, etc. I thought it might be interesting to see what everyone's ideas are on here.

It was almost like they wanted no mention of her as if she didn't exist. They wanted Andy to get on with life and have girlfriends like Ellie, Peggy, Mary, Helen etc. On The Rifleman Mark's mother was constantly mentioned and in a wonderful episode Mark dreams he meets her.

In one episode of TAGS Barney is Andy's cousin later he's only his friend.

it's in the first 2 or 3 episodes of TAGS that they say Andy and Barney are cousins, but they later made them just good friends because the cousins thing was supposed to be a joke about how sometimes in small southern towns back then relatives would sometimes work together. But they decided the joke wasn't working.

Is Andy's wife/Opie's mother ever named? I seem to think so, but I might be thinking of another show, as a lot of them were about single parents (to broaden the potential for relationships), and before the 70's it had to be by death rather than by divorce.

Anyway, she was probably either a local girl or someone Andy met in the service or during a short-lived job out of the area. But Andy always intended to stay in Mayberry as his permanent home (so he lost contact with Sharon de Spain from high school), and began a family there. I don't think we're told if Opie remembers his mother at all.

So unless I'm missing something from any info, I would think Andy, h.s. class of '45, had a couple or so full time jobs before he enlisted or was drafted, and was discharged before we got into Korea, and might have considered going back in. But instead he went through a law enforcement academy and became certified, and worked as a police officer, perhaps in Mt. Pilot, then became a deputy sheriff in another nearby county and/or to Sheriff Poindexter of Mayberry (mentioned in the punch-in-the-nose episode), and was elected Sheriff about 1955. He had bought his house before then and Opie was born not long before that. His wife died when Opie was 2, so he doesn't have a clear memory of her, but Andy was well-established as the sheriff, and hired one or more housekeeper/cooks, and Aunt Bee happened to become available when the last one is getting married and leaving. Then Season 1, Episode 1.