Frances Bavier

[JaneTVFan]

What was her deal? From what I've heard about her, she was a cold bitch. She was cold towards her fellow cast members. After she left Mayberry RFD, she retired to Siler City, NC where she became a complete recluse and wouldn't have anything to do with anyone in town. When she got ill later on, I understand that Ron Howard, being the nice guy that he is, went to see her but she wouldn't allow him in her house. All she wanted to do by that point is stay stuck in her house, alone with her 90 cats, a complete, antisocial recluse. What the hell was her problem? Did she ever even go on a date in her entire life, with a man or woman?

[DarleneIllyria]

I've heard stories about her too. I don't know what her problem was. She had problems with Andy too. I think she allowed Andy to see her before her death so she could apologize to him for being such a bitch. What did Frances die from? If she was dying from cancer or something, she might not have wanted everybody close to her and seeing her die. Just a guess on that part. She did sound like she had issues though.

[Brian]

She died from congestive heart failure due to a heart attack, not cancer. I got this info from the Internet Movie Database.

[prowler4]

GO JENNY!!!!!! Star Trek!!!!!

[CollegeGirl]

On the TVLAND reunion show, Andy Griffith told audiences that she called him while she was sick. I think she did have cancer and was sick for a while, even though she died of congestive heart failure or something like that. Anyway, Andy said that she apologized for being so difficult during filming the show and confessed that most of their conflict was her fault because she just chose to be difficult. Andy said he asked if he could do anything for her and she just said no, that she just wanted to call and patch things up. She died shortly after their conversation.

I don't know anything about her earlier life, but researching this might give answers to her "cold" behavior later in life. Often, victims of abuse turn cold toward others. Or, she may have suffered from an emotional disorder.

[DarleneIllyria]

Originally posted by prowler4
GO JENNY!!!!!! Star Trek!!!!!

lol- Cool we got another ST fan on the boards!

Originally posted by CollegeGirl


I don't know anything about her earlier life, but researching this might give answers to her "cold" behavior later in life. Often, victims of abuse turn cold toward others. Or, she may have suffered from an emotional disorder.

You know, I've never thought about that. It does make sense. I've seen it happen before. Yeah, it does fit.

[Brian]

How did you get two quotes in there?

[DarleneIllyria]

Originally posted by BJL
How did you get two quotes in there?

I click the quote button for one post and then I click quote for the second quote, but I right click 'Open in new window' for that second quote. When the post in the new window comes up, I copy and paste it into the first window.

[PeggySue]

I thought this article might be of interest on this forum, with the recent questions about Frances Bavier. I am a loyal Andy Griffith Show fan, having started watching it a few years into its original run on TV. I still love the reruns, hope they go on forever! I don't know if it is OK to post the entire article, if not let me know and I'll edit it.

Article about Aunt Bee

Everybody's favorite aunt
Bavier's legacy as Aunt Bee still alive today
By Chip Womick
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune

'Randolph Rewind,' a weekly visit, or revisitation, with a person, place or news event from the county's past by Ramseur resident Chip Womick, is published each Monday in The Courier-Tribune.

Say Frances E. Bavier and people may shake their heads, not recognizing the name.

Say Aunt Bee and many of those same folks likely will nod as a mental picture leaps to mind of a smiling, gray-haired woman in a flowered dress - and maybe a proper hat.

Bavier was the actress who played Sheriff Andy Taylor's Aunt Bee on "The Andy Griffith Show," which was a top 10 television show for years during the 1960s.

She's buried in Siler City, where she lived the last 17 years of her life. She died after a period of failing health on Dec. 6, 1989, eight days before her 87th birthday. Her eight-foot-tall granite monument in Oakwood Cemetery lists both the name she was given at birth and the name to which she gave life and personality on the TV screen. The marker also bears a quote: "To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die."

Aunt Bee, family and friends are seen every day somewhere in the country in reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show." But Bavier's legacy lives on in other ways, too.

In the summer of 1972 when she first moved to the area, Bavier immediately became a sought-after celebrity who lent her star power to various charitable causes.

In November of her first year in the South, Bavier, a New York City native, was named honorary chairman of the Christmas Seal drive for the Mid-State Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association. The following January, she was appointed chairman of the 1973 Easter Seal Campaign for the North Central Chapter of the state Easter Seal society.

As time passed, however, Bavier found herself overwhelmed by demands to speak and by the univited intrusions of an inquiring public, sometimes by the busload, who beat a path to her door. She retreated to an almost cloistered existence in her 22-room home with 15 cats.

She consistently rejected requests from reporters for interviews - Henry King of The Courier-Tribune tried for years, with no luck, to arrange a visit with Bavier. Sometimes, though, she talked with reporters by phone.

That's how a Raleigh newsman conducted a 1981 interview in which she explained that she had been looking for a small, quiet town in which to retire when she bought her home in Siler City sight unseen.

"I fell in love with North Carolina, all the pretty roads and the trees," she said. "I, like a child, came here looking for a fairyland."

Bavier, who won an Emmy in 1967 as "Best Supporting Actress" for her Aunt Bee portrayal, moved to Siler City from Los Angeles in 1972, four years after the hit show ended. She also played Aunt Bee on "Mayberry RFD" from 1968-1970.

Fans of "The Andy Griffith Show" know that it was set in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C., and that Andy, his deputy sidekick Barney Fife and other characters frequently mention the capital city of Raleigh.

Siler City also is mentioned in several episodes, but that is not why Bavier bought a 6,000-square-foot home in the town and retired there. Her connection to the Chatham County community was established in 1963 when she traveled to Duke Hospital to undergo the famed rice diet. While there, she became friends with a receptionist whose sister lived in Siler City. Bavier subsequently developed a friendship with the Siler City woman, Mrs. Herbert Jourdan.

She spent a Christmas holiday in the Jourdan home and later invited Mrs. Jourdan to an awards' dinner when she won her Emmy.

When Bavier died, her estate was worth $700,000.

She left bequests to a number of people, including $50,000 to a man who served as her longtime "chauffeur, butler and go-fer" and $50,000 to a Siler City police detective. She gave $100,000 to the Siler City Police Department, stipulating that the money be placed in a trust fund and the interest distributed to the officers as bonuses every Christmas. She bequeathed $50,000 each to the Siler City Rescue Squad and the Siler City Volunteer Fire Department. She left her two-story brick-and-stone house to Moore Regional Hospital, where she had been a patient several times. (The home was sold in January 1990, four days after being put on the market, for $125,000.)

Everything in the house Bavier left to the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. She enjoyed watching public TV.

The contents included more than 800 items - her car, a collection of leather-bound books, antique laces, vintage hats, furniture and photo albums filled with pictures from her childhood and those from her acting days, such as photographs of Ron Howard when he played Opie, Andy's son on the TV show.

The Center staged a two-day extravaganza to promote the auction of the items, including a preview party to inspect the belongings. The auction raised about $120,000 for public TV.

The star item turned out to be her 1966 Studebaker Daytona - a green, two-door sedan with four flat tires and a dented fender - which had not been driven since its final trip to the grocery store in 1983. The interest in the car caught planners by surprise despite the fact that 1966 was the last year Studebaker was in production.

"It's been unbelievable," the director of UNC Public Television said in a 1990 interview, two weeks before the June 2 auction. "It just boggles the mind. Originally I thought we might get a couple of hundred bucks for it. Now it may be as much as a couple of thousand."

Inquiries about the car came from near and far. A Milwaukee dentist wanted it to complete his collection of Studebakers. Someone called from England, someone from Sweden. A fellow with the American Museum of Automotive Design in Wilson rang up, too.

But the highest bidders turned out to be Stan Bingham and Brown Loflin of Davidson County, who anteed up $20,000 for the old car. The men planned to display the Studebaker at Denton FarmPark, where they were gearing up to stage the 20th annual Southeast Old Threshers' Reunion.

In a 1990 interview in The Courier-Tribune, Loflin explained that he thought the car needed to stay on home turf - or at least in North Carolina and not in some far-flung state or nation.

"The show they put on was pretty small-town and down-to-earth," he said, "and I think that it's the same feeling here, with the old farm machinery show we put on here - it's country. And I think Aunt Bee would be happy ... I hope it'll make a lot of other people happy, too."

Following her death, a couple of The Courier-Tribune readers shared stories about Aunt Bee.

Barbara Scarlett of Troy wrote that when she and her husband were preparing to move south from New Jersey in the early 1970s, one of her piano pupils told her that she could move only if she promised to procure Aunt Bee's autograph for the student. So, Scarlett wrote Bavier and asked for an autograph.

"Aunt Bee was so obliging," Scarlett wrote. "She not only sent her signature but she wrote Marianne a letter encouraging her to keep up her music! How thoughtful!"

Elsie Robinson Gresham wrote about meeting Bavier in 1973. She had read in a newspaper article that Aunt Bee wondered if the Sweetheart rose, a pale pink, fragrant flower she remembered from her childhood, still grew anywhere.

Gresham (who was at the time Mrs. Robinson), her husband, Thomas, and daughter Kathy decided to take a Sweetheart rose bush to Bavier. They knocked at her door but got no answer, so they pulled their car into the driveway to leave a note.

"Aunt Bee came out on the upstairs balcony," Gresham wrote, "and I explained our mission. She came 'pitty patting' down the outside steps from the balcony to greet us. She wanted to help us decide where to plant it and seemed very pleased. She was very gracious and charming and a delight to talk with."

If you have an idea for 'Randolph Rewind,' you can contact Womick by calling 626-6122 or at <cwomick@courier-tribune.com.>

[DarleneIllyria]

Originally posted by PeggySue
I thought this article might be of interest on this forum, with the recent questions about Frances Bavier. I am a loyal Andy Griffith Show fan, having started watching it a few years into its original run on TV. I still love the reruns, hope they go on forever! I don't know if it is OK to post the entire article, if not let me know and I'll edit it.

Article about Aunt Bee

Everybody's favorite aunt
Bavier's legacy as Aunt Bee still alive today
By Chip Womick
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune

'Randolph Rewind,' a weekly visit, or revisitation, with a person, place or news event from the county's past by Ramseur resident Chip Womick, is published each Monday in The Courier-Tribune.

Say Frances E. Bavier and people may shake their heads, not recognizing the name.

Say Aunt Bee and many of those same folks likely will nod as a mental picture leaps to mind of a smiling, gray-haired woman in a flowered dress - and maybe a proper hat.

Bavier was the actress who played Sheriff Andy Taylor's Aunt Bee on "The Andy Griffith Show," which was a top 10 television show for years during the 1960s.

She's buried in Siler City, where she lived the last 17 years of her life. She died after a period of failing health on Dec. 6, 1989, eight days before her 87th birthday. Her eight-foot-tall granite monument in Oakwood Cemetery lists both the name she was given at birth and the name to which she gave life and personality on the TV screen. The marker also bears a quote: "To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die."

Aunt Bee, family and friends are seen every day somewhere in the country in reruns of "The Andy Griffith Show." But Bavier's legacy lives on in other ways, too.

In the summer of 1972 when she first moved to the area, Bavier immediately became a sought-after celebrity who lent her star power to various charitable causes.

In November of her first year in the South, Bavier, a New York City native, was named honorary chairman of the Christmas Seal drive for the Mid-State Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association. The following January, she was appointed chairman of the 1973 Easter Seal Campaign for the North Central Chapter of the state Easter Seal society.

As time passed, however, Bavier found herself overwhelmed by demands to speak and by the univited intrusions of an inquiring public, sometimes by the busload, who beat a path to her door. She retreated to an almost cloistered existence in her 22-room home with 15 cats.

She consistently rejected requests from reporters for interviews - Henry King of The Courier-Tribune tried for years, with no luck, to arrange a visit with Bavier. Sometimes, though, she talked with reporters by phone.

That's how a Raleigh newsman conducted a 1981 interview in which she explained that she had been looking for a small, quiet town in which to retire when she bought her home in Siler City sight unseen.

"I fell in love with North Carolina, all the pretty roads and the trees," she said. "I, like a child, came here looking for a fairyland."

Bavier, who won an Emmy in 1967 as "Best Supporting Actress" for her Aunt Bee portrayal, moved to Siler City from Los Angeles in 1972, four years after the hit show ended. She also played Aunt Bee on "Mayberry RFD" from 1968-1970.

Fans of "The Andy Griffith Show" know that it was set in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C., and that Andy, his deputy sidekick Barney Fife and other characters frequently mention the capital city of Raleigh.

Siler City also is mentioned in several episodes, but that is not why Bavier bought a 6,000-square-foot home in the town and retired there. Her connection to the Chatham County community was established in 1963 when she traveled to Duke Hospital to undergo the famed rice diet. While there, she became friends with a receptionist whose sister lived in Siler City. Bavier subsequently developed a friendship with the Siler City woman, Mrs. Herbert Jourdan.

She spent a Christmas holiday in the Jourdan home and later invited Mrs. Jourdan to an awards' dinner when she won her Emmy.

When Bavier died, her estate was worth $700,000.

She left bequests to a number of people, including $50,000 to a man who served as her longtime "chauffeur, butler and go-fer" and $50,000 to a Siler City police detective. She gave $100,000 to the Siler City Police Department, stipulating that the money be placed in a trust fund and the interest distributed to the officers as bonuses every Christmas. She bequeathed $50,000 each to the Siler City Rescue Squad and the Siler City Volunteer Fire Department. She left her two-story brick-and-stone house to Moore Regional Hospital, where she had been a patient several times. (The home was sold in January 1990, four days after being put on the market, for $125,000.)

Everything in the house Bavier left to the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. She enjoyed watching public TV.

The contents included more than 800 items - her car, a collection of leather-bound books, antique laces, vintage hats, furniture and photo albums filled with pictures from her childhood and those from her acting days, such as photographs of Ron Howard when he played Opie, Andy's son on the TV show.

The Center staged a two-day extravaganza to promote the auction of the items, including a preview party to inspect the belongings. The auction raised about $120,000 for public TV.

The star item turned out to be her 1966 Studebaker Daytona - a green, two-door sedan with four flat tires and a dented fender - which had not been driven since its final trip to the grocery store in 1983. The interest in the car caught planners by surprise despite the fact that 1966 was the last year Studebaker was in production.

"It's been unbelievable," the director of UNC Public Television said in a 1990 interview, two weeks before the June 2 auction. "It just boggles the mind. Originally I thought we might get a couple of hundred bucks for it. Now it may be as much as a couple of thousand."

Inquiries about the car came from near and far. A Milwaukee dentist wanted it to complete his collection of Studebakers. Someone called from England, someone from Sweden. A fellow with the American Museum of Automotive Design in Wilson rang up, too.

But the highest bidders turned out to be Stan Bingham and Brown Loflin of Davidson County, who anteed up $20,000 for the old car. The men planned to display the Studebaker at Denton FarmPark, where they were gearing up to stage the 20th annual Southeast Old Threshers' Reunion.

In a 1990 interview in The Courier-Tribune, Loflin explained that he thought the car needed to stay on home turf - or at least in North Carolina and not in some far-flung state or nation.

"The show they put on was pretty small-town and down-to-earth," he said, "and I think that it's the same feeling here, with the old farm machinery show we put on here - it's country. And I think Aunt Bee would be happy ... I hope it'll make a lot of other people happy, too."

Following her death, a couple of The Courier-Tribune readers shared stories about Aunt Bee.

Barbara Scarlett of Troy wrote that when she and her husband were preparing to move south from New Jersey in the early 1970s, one of her piano pupils told her that she could move only if she promised to procure Aunt Bee's autograph for the student. So, Scarlett wrote Bavier and asked for an autograph.

"Aunt Bee was so obliging," Scarlett wrote. "She not only sent her signature but she wrote Marianne a letter encouraging her to keep up her music! How thoughtful!"

Elsie Robinson Gresham wrote about meeting Bavier in 1973. She had read in a newspaper article that Aunt Bee wondered if the Sweetheart rose, a pale pink, fragrant flower she remembered from her childhood, still grew anywhere.

Gresham (who was at the time Mrs. Robinson), her husband, Thomas, and daughter Kathy decided to take a Sweetheart rose bush to Bavier. They knocked at her door but got no answer, so they pulled their car into the driveway to leave a note.

"Aunt Bee came out on the upstairs balcony," Gresham wrote, "and I explained our mission. She came 'pitty patting' down the outside steps from the balcony to greet us. She wanted to help us decide where to plant it and seemed very pleased. She was very gracious and charming and a delight to talk with."

If you have an idea for 'Randolph Rewind,' you can contact Womick by calling 626-6122 or at <cwomick@courier-tribune.com.>

That was a very interesting article. Thanks for posting it.

[bb25]

I think "cold bitch" is pretty strong...I read in an Andy Griffith Show book that I own, that they said she was "temperamental" & "moody" and I think that suits it better than to totally diss her and make her out to be some kind of tyrant.

BTW, does anyone know who else was nominated in the category for which she won that year?

[Kitt]

Thanks very much to Peggy Sue for posting the article. It brings to light 'Aunt Bee' a little better.

[Hog Winslow]

I think the real story is that she was more of a classically trained actress, and the TV genre was not her cup of tea. Many actors and actresses have problems dealing with the differences between, say, Shakespeare and Gilligan's Island. She was, in general, a gracious lady and a wonderful actress who may not have been into the day-to-day antics of a crowd such as that which contains Barney and Goober. Just my thoughts.

Hog

[Lucy1]

I think it's very sad. She had so much money and fame, yet it seemed like it didn't mean much to her. Not to have family is tough.
She may also may have had a depression or anxiety problem and in the 60's and 70's not as much was known about those problems. If she had either of those sicknesses, perfection is part of the problem and thats why she may have been dificult on the set. Don't forget she was used to working on Broadway, where you couldn't make mistakes when it is live in front of so many people everyday.
I have family and I can't imagine what it would be like to die alone.
Everyone always talks about her having all those cats. I know it is alittle to much. But I love animals and I have 3 dogs and they do make my life much more full. But people make it sound sick that she had all those cats. Look at Betty White with all the dogs she has.
Rich people have help and lots of money for food and care for their animals. Poor people would llive in filth, it's different.
Anyway, bottom line, I feel sorry for her. And with all she gave us on tv, she should be forgiven. I am sure Andy must have, she helped to make the show what it was. The Best!!!

Lucy

[goldie]

Originally posted by JaneTVFan
What was her deal? From what I've heard about her, she was a cold bitch. She was cold towards her fellow cast members. After she left Mayberry RFD, she retired to Siler City, NC where she became a complete recluse and wouldn't have anything to do with anyone in town. When she got ill later on, I understand that Ron Howard, being the nice guy that he is, went to see her but she wouldn't allow him in her house. All she wanted to do by that point is stay stuck in her house, alone with her 90 cats, a complete, antisocial recluse. What the hell was her problem? Did she ever even go on a date in her entire life, with a man or woman?

I have to say that your post is rather harsh in tone. Frankly, although her character was fine for the show's setting, I never cared for Aunt Bee - I found her rather annoying.

But as for Frances Bavier, I don't think it's anyone's business to judge why someone prefers to live reclusively. Perhaps she was simply a professional who preferred to keep things on that level, and it was her right - as it is anyone's - to seek privacy, live alone, and be a solitary soul - if that's what they prefer. None of what's been printed or said about that should necessarily be interpreted as her being "antisocial" or having a "problem" or any sort of mental, emotional, depressive, etc. disorders.

Just my two cents worth.