Betty Lynn Happy to Call ‘Mayberry’ Home

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Unlike other celebrities who travel great distances to attend Mayberry Days, Betty Lynn — better known as Barney’s girlfriend “Thelma Lou” — is able to call Mount Airy home on a full-time basis.

“I enjoy it, I do,” the popular cast member from “The Andy Griffith Show” said of her life in this city, where she moved in January 2007 from Los Angeles.

Such a switch, in which the crime and other pressures of big-city life were traded for a quieter existence, might well have served as the plot for an episode of the show that often promoted small-town values.

But that scenario became a happy reality for Betty Lynn, who doesn’t regret the move at all.

“It’s so pretty here,” said the longtime actress, who added that she is continuously impressed by the unspoiled natural beauty of this area. Hearing her talk about it reminds one that it’s exactly the kind of place where Mayberry residents would have loved to go fishing or for a picnic in the country.

“It’s just the way God made it — it’s beautiful,” added Lynn, a resident of a local retirement village. She said she loves to take rides and simply enjoy the local forests and hollows, which are literally and figuratively miles away from smog-ridden Southern California.

While most longtime residents of Surry County tend to take its abundance of trees for granted, that’s not true for Lynn — “I want to know what they are,” she said.

Along with enjoying the lifestyle that the Mount Airy area offers, Betty Lynn is equally pleased with the continuing popularity of “The Andy Griffith Show,” her role in its unprecedented history and the annual Mayberry Days celebration that helps perpetuate its longevity.

Lynn recalls that when she began work on the TV series in the early 1960s, there was an awareness among the actors and crew that they were producing a quality show, since it consistently finished near the top of the ratings list. But she admits that no one predicted the tremendous heights the show would reach, which are still evident some 40 years after it left CBS.

“We knew it was a wonderful show,” she said during an exclusive interview at the Andy Griffith Playhouse, but the special status it has achieved in the hearts of viewers was a surprise. “I don’t think it ever occurred to any of us.”

“It never occurred to me that years later, I would be making special appearances” related to the show, Lynn added. “I’m called to do all kinds of things. I have to say I didn’t expect it.”

‘Grateful’ For Role

Many movie and TV actors labor for a lifetime, only to disappear from the public eye with little or no fanfare. Their roles of long ago, no matter how important they seemed at the time, fade away as well.

That’s not true for the Thelma Lou character whom Betty Lynn portrayed on “The Andy Griffith Show.” It proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime part that has made hers a household name, far eclipsing her appearances in major Hollywood productions with legendary stars.

“Everything else I ever did, I mean, who cares?” Lynn joked. “I’m thrilled that I got to be in that show and be Thelma Lou, because it has meant a great deal to me.”

The Missouri native who has worked on the stage as well as in movies and television, has said that she became an actress out of a desire to have everyone like her. Lynn repeated that during this week’s interview at the playhouse, and said she believes her goal was accomplished.

“I can’t think of anything else I could have done to make the people love me the way they seem to love me,” Lynn said. “Nothing that I did is that memorable to people.”

Fans often will approach her and seem so excited to actually be meeting the “real” Thelma Lou. Some people even cry when they do. “And you don’t know how to react,” Lynn said of those occasions.

During her long career in show business that began in the 1940s, Betty Lynn appeared in films alongside such notables as Bette Davis, Fred MacMurray, Natalie Wood and others. “I admired everybody I worked with in those days and I was so lucky, really, to be able to work with all the stars I did.”

But to many, she will always be Thelma Lou.

“Even the Griffith show fans don’t realize how much I’ve done,” Lynn said of a hard-core group that tends to be highly knowledgeable of Mayberry trivia and other facts surrounding the series.

Mayberry Days Is Special

Lynn looks forward each year to Mayberry Days, which she was a special guest of before relocating to Mount Airy. The annual celebration offers a chance to bring the people and events associated with “The Andy Griffith Show” into sharp focus.

“It’s fun to see Maggie Peterson-Mancuso (who played Charlene Darling),” Lynn said, her eyes twinkling in anticipation. She also was looking forward to reuniting with Jackie Joseph (“Romeena,” the love interest of Ernest T. Bass) and the Dillards, who appeared as the Darling boys for several episodes that highlighted their bluegrass musical abilities.

“I didn’t work with any of these people,” said Lynn, explaining that they didn’t appear on any of the same episodes together. “The way I got to know them was years later, for special appearances.”

“They’re the sweetest people — I enjoy them a lot.”

With its parade, performances, various personal appearances and other attractions, Lynn finds Mayberry Days “exciting.”

“The crowds get bigger every year.”

However, the veteran actress is saddened by the fact that many of the cast members have passed away, including Don Knotts (Barney), Francis Bavier (Aunt Bea), Hal Smith (Otis) and others.

“I’ve went to so many funerals, I can’t tell you — it’s sad,” Lynn said.

She stayed close to Knotts and his wife throughout his later years, and spoke at Knotts’ memorial service in 2006 along with Andy Griffith and Ron Howard.

Show Remains A Treat

Lynn still watches “The Andy Griffith Show” reruns every chance she gets, which are aired locally by a Greensboro TV station as well as the TV Land cable network.

Among her favorite episodes are the one in which Aunt Bea makes her first appearance, winning the heart of an initially reluctant Opie who was wary of the new housekeeper at the Taylor residence. “I always get teary-eyed over that,” the actress admitted.

Another beloved episode for her surrounds Opie having to care for baby birds after their mother is killed. Other favorites showcase the comedic talents of Knotts, including episodes in which the tone-deaf Barney tries out for the town choir and buys a car that turns out to be a lemon.

“Don was really a terrific actor,” Lynn said, pointing out that all the episodes seemed to have one thing in common. “There was so much love there,” she said of the interaction between Andy and Barney and other characters.

“I really am fond of it,” Lynn added of “The Andy Griffith Show.”

“I don’t care if you’ve seen it a hundred times. There’s something still new. It’s like I’ve never seen it.”

Lynn departed from “The Andy Griffith Show” in the late 1960s at the same time as Knotts, who left to make a series of movies for Universal Pictures. That also coincided with the series being telecast in color for the first time, a change that bothers her.

“It just had a charm about it that needed that black-and-white look,” Lynn said. Along with the departure of Knotts, the advent of color altered the show significantly, she believes.

A Welcome Move

Before coming to Mount Airy in 2007, Lynn was living in a house in Los Angeles that she had occupied since 1950. The house was already old when she bought it, “but it was close to Fox,” Lynn said of the studio where she had a contract at the time.

A series of crimes led to her decision to move to the town after which Mayberry was patterned more than 50 years later.

“I’d been robbed on the street twice, and once in a department store,” Lynn said. As if that were not enough, her home was broken into while she was on a visit to Alabama. The final straw came when the residence was illegally entered again while she was here for Mayberry Days.

It reached the point where Lynn said she feared she might get physically hurt by criminals along with having them steal her valuables. “So I ended up staying in a hotel,” she said. “I was not a wealthy actress by any means.”

Now that she’s become somewhat a fixture in Mount Airy, and certainly of Mayberry Days, many fans are happy about the chance to readily see a person who played such a prominent role in the television program they hold so dear.

But one can bet that Betty Lynn is just as appreciative of them.

“It didn’t hit me that I would be someone they would want to see all the time,” the Hollywood veteran said of her thoughts at the time she was working on the show.

“I am grateful — I am very grateful.”

[honeybea]

Thanks for sharing that! I guess the show really had an impact on her to make her move to Mt. Airy. She seems like a wonderful person.

[catlover79]

Very cool!! Thanks for sharing, Charles.