![]() Howard, who played 5-year-old Opie Taylor when the show began, is now 61. Only Lynn, Ron Howard, Jim Nabors and Elinor Donahue, who appeared in the show's first season, survive from the cast. "Frances Bavier spent her final years in nearby Siler City. "I'm not the only cast member to settle here," she said. "I came here for reunions, and when I decided to move from Los Angeles about a decade ago, Mount Airy came to mind," said Lynn, still sharp and witty. ![]() Newsome plays Floyd the Barber in many 'Griffith events' around Mount Airy, Andy's hometown and reputed model for the fictional Mayberry. "Betty's just a local gal on all the other days, but when she visits the museum, she's a headliner again." ![]() "Fans of the show are crazy about Betty," said Allan Newsome, who runs the website for the show's Rerun Watchers Club. On the third Friday of every month, she spends hours at the museum, meeting fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures. Today, the 88-year-old Lynn, who moved to Mount Airy, N.C., in 2006, is the star at the Andy Griffith Museum. She played Thelma Lou, girlfriend of Deputy Barney Fife, on the "Andy Griffith Show" - that is, when Barney wasn't fooling around with Juanita down at the diner. Details are to be released at a later date.More than 50 years ago, Betty Lynn won the role of a lifetime. A memorial service will take place in Culver City, California. Lynn had been working on an autobiography before her death, which is now expected to be released posthumously, the museum stated. “He brought me to a sweet town, wonderful people, and just said, ‘Now, that’s for you Betty.’” “I think God’s blessed me,” Lynn said at the time. She expressed her love for the city to The Associated Press in 2015. Lynn moved from Hollywood to Mount Airy in 2007 following a series of break-ins at her home. In her later years, Lynn participated in reunions with fellow cast members and various Mayberry-themed festivals.ĭirector and actor Ron Howard, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor’s son, Opie, paid tribute to Lynn in a tweet Sunday saying she “brightened every scene she was in & every shooting day she was on set.” Her career spanned decades, but fans came to know her best for her role in “The Andy Griffith Show.” She moved to New York in the late 1940s and began acting in film, and later, television. She was “thought to be the only American woman to have traveled the dangerous Burma Road during the war,” according to the museum’s statement. Lynn took her talents overseas, performing in the USO for servicemembers during World War II. ![]() ![]() In 1944, she started performing as a part of USO Camp Shows. 29, 1926 in Kansas City, Missouri, Lynn began studying dance and acting at a young age. She reprised her role in the made-for-TV movie “Return to Mayberry,” in which Thelma Lou and Barney got married.īorn Elizabeth Ann Theresa Lynn on Aug. Lynn appeared as Thelma Lou on the show from 1961 until 1966. Lynn died peacefully Saturday after a brief illness, The Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, announced in a statement. MOUNT AIRY - Betty Lynn, the film and television actor who was best known for her role as Barney Fife’s sweetheart Thelma Lou on “The Andy Griffith Show,” has died. ![]()
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