CNN
By
Andy Rose
October 17, 2021
Betty Lynn, best known
for playing Barney Fife's girlfriend Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith
Show," died Saturday, the Andy Griffith Museum stated. She was 95 years old.
Although she was born in Kansas City,
Missouri, and spent most of her career in southern California, in 2006 Lynn
moved to Mt. Airy, North Carolina, the town which served as the inspiration for
Griffith's Mayberry.
She served as an ambassador for the Andy Griffith
Museum, regularly appearing at the museum to
speak to fans and sign autographs.
"I love watching the old shows and still
laugh out loud," Lynn told HuffPost in
2013. "Those days were some of the happiest of my life."
Actors Don Knotts who played the role of
Barney Fife, right, along with George Lindsey, who played Goober and Betty Lynn
who played Thelma Lou, left, arrive at a reception at the Governor's Mansion in
Nashville, Tennessee Wednesday, June 27, 2001.
After a number of bit parts in films like
"Cheaper by the Dozen" and small roles in TV series including
"Disneyland," Lynn first appeared as Thelma Lou in 1961.
Her character was often flustered by the
tightly-wound personality of boyfriend Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts, but
they continued to date throughout most of the series.
After two decades of on-again, off-again romance, they finally married in the reunion TV movie "Return to Mayberry" in 1986, the characters' final appearance together on screen.
"I saw her last a few years ago where she still lit up the room with the positivity," director Ron Howard, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor's son Opie, posted on Twitter Sunday. "It was great to have known and worked with her."
LYNN,
Betty (Elizabeth
Ann Theresa Lynn)
Born: 8/26/1926, Kansas
City, Missouri, U.S.A
Died:
10/16/2021,
Mount Airy, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Betty
Lynn’s westerns – actress:
Ricochet
Romance – 1954
Many
Rivers to Cross – 1955 (Cissie Crawford)
Gun
for a Coward – 1956 (Claire)
Lawman
(TV) – 1958 (Edna Phillips)
Wagon
Train (TV) – 1958 (Molly Richardson)
The
Hangman – 1959 (Molly)
Bronco
(TV) – 1959 (Molly Bailey)
Sugarfoot
(TV) – 1959 (Sarah Sears, Alice Fenton)
Tales
of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1959 (Mary Francis)
The
Boy Who Stole the Elephant (TV) – 1970 (Lottie Ladare)
Little
House on the Prairie (TV) – 1974 (Bridger)
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