frances bavier funeral

Connect with the definitive source for global and local news ``The floors, sub-floors and joists are oak. But actor Jim Nabors, who played mechanic Gomer Pyle on the show, praised Bavier Thursday as someone willing to teach a young actor how to improve his craft.

``The fans aren't from just around here. Apnews.com SILER CITY, N.C. (AP) _ Frances Bavier, an Emmy Award-winning actress remembered by millions of fans as the devoted Aunt Bee on ''The Andy Griffith Show,'' died Wednesday night at her home. ``Aunt Bee never allowed anyone to rake leaves.``Servants say Aunt Bee, who went around the world three times, loved wandering about her yard but had to do so in the middle of the night,' Vickie Russell said.Despite Siler City's Mayberry-like atmosphere (population 4,808), fame and her increasingly reclusive nature held Bavier prisoner inside her home for much of the time.The late Dr. J. Bavier’s largesse is even more impressive considering how she lived her final years.

She died about 7 p.m., said Leslie Fletcher of Smith and Buckner Funeral Home. A private person, she had refused media requests for interviews for some time.

″I am a better person for having known her.″ A native of New York City, she attended Columbia University and was a graduate of the American Academy of the Arts. At one point, she invited the show’s other cast members - Griffith, Don Knotts and Ron Howard - to visit her in the hospital. The couple repainted and repapered the 11-foot high olive green kitchen and breakfast area.Larry Russell replaced the cabinet doors, now white, and added a work island. ″Many episodes focused on her and she was essential to the success of the show,″ said John Meroney, founder of the Andy Griffith Show Appreciation Society. Abraham Lincoln's hair, bloody telegram up for auction Trump pardons Alice Johnson after her RNC speech ``They stop all the time and ask questions.

But she had a couple of beaus Andy liked to tease her about and once she got 'tiddly' -- Mayberry for drunk -- after sipping some elixir from a traveling medicine man. The first thing they did after buying the house was to rake the grounds. 'A lot of them can say, 'I have an Aunt Bee,'' he said.

'The Russells won't divulge the cost, only that it was ``a good price.' They were friends to the end. She made friends in Siler City and began visiting them. She hopes to have the book finished by summer's end.In updating the house, the Russells have kept many of Bavier's fixtures, window treatments and other decorative touches. Hardly the domesticated matriarch, Bavier was a sophisticated lady who resided in New York and Los Angeles her entire life, working alongside esteemed actors like Bette Davis and Henry Fonda. The actress had spent some time in North Carolina in 1963 while on a rice diet program through Duke University, but that was the extent of her knowledge of the state. 'Because of the questions, Russell says she's answering them in a book based on conversations she's had - and taped - with people who knew Aunt Bee. ″She was never big on doing interviews but in my converstions with her she was always open and willing to talk about her days on the Andy Griffith Show,″ Meroney said. Frances Bavier, Emmy-winning actress who gave life to Aunt Bee on “The Andy Griffith Show,” was by most accounts the polar opposite of her alter ego. Miss Bavier was released early this week from Chatham Hospital, where she was being treated in the coronary care unit.